NEW DELHI — India suspended dozens of lawmakers from its parliament Tuesday, with opposition members accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party of orchestrating a power grab.
The lawmakers were suspended for disrupting parliamentary proceedings as they protested a security breach in the chamber after a man jumped into the Lok Sabha, or lower house, earlier this month and set off a smoke canister, shouting slogans and calling for an end to “fascism.”
The Lok Sabha’s speaker has said a review is being conducted and the police have filed terrorism charges against at least five people in connection with the breach.
But opposition lawmakers wanted a debate and a statement from the Home Minister Amit Shah.
Modi said the breach was very serious and called for an investigation in an interview published Sunday with a Hindi-language newspaper Dainik Jagran, but said “there was no need to debate this.”
The 49 suspensions come after 78 more lawmakers were suspended Monday and another 14 last week, bringing the tally to a total of 141 lawmakers across both the upper and lower house, all of whom belonging to opposition parties.
Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has majority in both houses, is now almost unopposed as multiple contentious draft laws are set to be debated in the parliament.
The suspended lawmakers, most of whom are part of the “INDIA” coalition that is trying to dethrone the BJP in next year’s national elections, called the move as dictatorial.
The government “does not want the people of India to hear out the Opposition, while these Bills are debated and deliberated,” Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the Congress party, said Tuesday in a post on X.
Indian Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar said Wednesday he had received a telephone call from Modi who “expressed great pain over the abject theatrics of some Honourable MPs,” in a post on X.
The decisions of the presiding officers of the upper and lower houses to suspend the lawmakers were broadcast on parliament’s television channel.
Opposition Congress Party member Karti Chidambaram called the suspensions a trend.
“Their approach is clear: It’s my way or the highway. If you don’t fall in line we will throw you out because we have the majority,” he said.
Although disruptions and protests are not unusual in the parliament, Monday’s suspensions were the highest ever during a single session.
The parliamentary membership of Rahul Gandhi, primary leader of the Congress Party, was cancelled after he was convicted of defaming Modi by a local court in Modi’s home state, Gujarat in March. He returned to the parliament in August after his decision was overturned by the country’s top court.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
