New Delhi: Opposition leaders have called on the government and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to lift the suspension of eight MPs — seven Congress members and one CPI(M) MP — imposed during the Budget session’s first phase for “unruly behaviour.”
The suspensions followed an incident on February 3, when the MPs tore papers and threw them toward the Chair. Those affected include Congress’s Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Hibi Eden, C Kiran Kumar Reddy, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Manickam Tagore, Prashant Padole, and Dean Kuriakose, as well as CPI(M)’s S Venkatesan. They remain excluded until the session concludes on April 2, intensifying opposition-government tensions over various matters.
On Thursday, a delegati
on met Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju to press for revocation of the suspension. The group comprised Congress general secretary K C Venugopal, Samajwadi Party’s Dharmendra Yadav, NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule, DMK’s Kanimozhi, and TMC’s Shatabdi Roy, Congress sources said.
According to sources, Rijiju assured them that he would take up the matter with the Speaker.
Congress chief whip K Suresh raised the issue again during Friday’s Business Advisory Committee meeting with Speaker Birla and Rijiju. Sources credited Suresh’s intervention, noting the suspensions as “the only sticking point between the opposition and the government.”
“Rijiju has told the opposition that he would get back to them on the issue after consultations,” a source said.
Meanwhile, sources indicated the government is open to a Rule 193 discussion on the West Asia conflict’s impact on India’s energy security.
The suspended MPs have been protesting on the steps of Parliament’s Makar Dwar against government policies. Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi have joined them at times.