New Delhi: Six members of the Lok Sabha Congress were suspended for five days by President Sumitra Mahajan on Monday over “highly improper” behavior during his protests over the lynching issue that “undermined the dignity of the President.”
Mahajan announced his order as soon as the House met at 14:00 hours after a postponement.
She said she was forced to name Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Adhir Rajan Chowdhury, Ranjeet Ranjan, Sushmita Dev and M K Raghavan for their misbehavior.
In his order, he said that all these members had broken official papers and thrown them into the chair, prompting members of the treasury banks to shout “shame, shame.”
Some of these members had collected documents from the secretariat’s desk at the Lok Sabha secretariat and had them ripped and thrown away, Mahajan said.
He said that all this had happened even though he agreed on a discussion on the subject of alleged atrocities against Dalits and Muslims.
Congressional leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and some other members had raised the subject of the atrocities and she had allowed them to speak, said Mahajan.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar had also agreed to a discussion on the issue, but despite many members storming the Well, he said while issuing the order.
They did not stop in spite of their repeated requests to return to their seats and instead, they surrendered to improper conduct, he said, while the House was adjourned until 14:30.
In announcing his suspension, many members of Congress met again at the Well, with K C Venugopal listening to him say that he should suspend all members of Congress. The president of the Congress, Sonia Gandhi, was also present in the House.
When the Assembly reconvened at 2.30 pm, members of Congress joined the Left in protest against the suspension, prompting Vice-President M Thambi Durai to lift the House for the day.
