Sonia, Rahul wear black bands, protest MPs suspension

Such an action, rare in the history of Lok Sabha, prompted Congress party president Sonia Gandhi to call it a “Black day for Indian democracy”.

On Monday speaker Sumitra Mahajan of the powerful lower house suspended the members of the Congress party.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had warned several of them of action if they did not stop displaying placards. “The high court came to the prima facie view that the Congress documents were forged and therefore to expect a chief minister to resign on the strength of forged documents is completely unfair”, he said.

While taking the tough action under Rule 374(A), she said Monday the members were being suspended for “persistently, wilfully obstructing the House”. However, a number of the Congress members staged a sit-in in the House. “The Congress party has ruled the country for a very long time and we expect a certain amount of statesmanship from it”, finance minister Arun Jaitley told reporters outside Parliament.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul on Tuesday lead Congress MPs protest outside Parliament against suspension of 25 MLAs by Lok Sabha Speaker. Opposition members, especially from the Congress, have been protesting against the government over Lalit Modi controversy and Vyapam scam since the Monsoon Session began last month.

The Congress has dubbed Mahajan’s decision as ‘harsh and one-sided.’.

The nine Opposition parties planning to boycott the House are Trinamool Congress, NCP, CPI(M), CPI, RSP, Muslim League, RJD, JD(U) and AAP. “They will go to any extent to achieve their end while shrewdly painting themselves as victim rather than the perpetrator”, said another Cabinet minister.

Such a major action is the first in the current Lok Sabha.

The Congress leaders’ idea is to spark off a debate over whether the Parliament can function like this.

“Congress must understand they are not only stalling parliament proceedings but are creating hindrance in the progress of the nation”, said minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party passed a resolution against Congress’ politics of obstructionism and negativity in party’s Parliamentary meet. He alleged that the ruling party members have been threatening his party colleagues to withdraw the demand for resignation of top BJP leaders. “All of them quit only when evidence had rendered their continuance untenable”, he said.

Retaliating back, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, “I agree with Congress demand that anything spoken against permission of Chairperson should be removed from the records”.