NEW DELHI, Dec 18, 2023 (BSS) -A total of 78 opposition members of parliament 
(MPs) both from Indian Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, were suspended today for 
staging protests seeking Home Minister Amit Shah's statement on the recent 
security breach inside the parliament, reports said. 

The Rajya Sabha this evening suspended 45 MPs for the remainder of the Winter 
Session, barely hours after the Lok Sabha suspended 33 over the Opposition's 
incessant protests demanding the statement of Indian home minister on last 
week's security breach inside parliament.

Meanwhile, 14 opposition MPs had been suspended last week, also for demanding 
the statement on the same issue. So, this takes the total number of MPs 
suspended in this session to 92. 

Earlier today, the suspended MPs staged a protest on the stairs of the Makar 
Dwar on the Parliament premises here.

The suspended MPs from Lok Sabha include Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress's 
leader in Lok Sabha, and Gaurav Gogoi, deputy leader of the party in the 
House. Trinamool MPs Kalyan Banerjee, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Saugata Ray and 
Satabdi Roy, and DMK members A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran are also on the list.

The government's move prompted allegation from the Congress that the former 
intended to "bulldoze" legislations in the Parliament without the 
Opposition's dissent or scrutiny.

"Not only in Lok Sabha, today was a blood bath in the Rajya Sabha with 45 
India party MPs getting suspended for demanding a statement by the Home 
Minister on the December 13 security breach, and for demanding that the 
Leader of the Opposition be allowed to speak. Incidentally, I too figure in 
this Roll of Honour-for the first time in my parliamentary career of 19 
years," Congress Leader Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X today.

President of Indian National Congress Mallikarjun Kharge said with an 
Opposition-less Parliament, the government can now "bulldoze important 
pending legislations, crush any dissent, without any debate".