New Delhi: The security breach inside the Lok Sabha Wednesday dominated the proceedings of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Thursday, with Opposition MPs raising slogans and demanding an explanation from Union home minister Amit Shah on the incident.
Two men with smoke cannisters jumped onto the Lok Sabha benches Wednesday, raising questions about lapses in the Parliament’s security protocols. The two are said to be part of a social media group and had “planned the incident for months”, as has been reported by ThePrint. While five of the accused have been arrested, one of the six is still on the run.
The pandemonium that ensued in Parliament over the incident Thursday, led to the suspension of 14 MPs from both the houses for the remainder of the winter session for “unruly behaviour” and also forced repeated adjournment in proceedings of both Houses.
While Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankar suspended Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien for sloganeering and demanding a discussion on the incident, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla suspended five Congress MPs — Hibi Eden, S. Jothimani, Ramya Haridas, T.N. Prathapan and Dean Kuriakose, for the remainder of the ongoing winter session.
Later, when the Lok Sabha met at 3 pm, after an adjournment in proceedings, nine other Lok Sabha MPs were suspended. These include the Congress’s V.K. Sreekandan, Benny Behanan, Mohammad Jawed and Manickam Tagore, the CPI(M)’s P.R. Natrajan and S. Venkatesan, DMK’s Kanimozhi and S.R. Parthiban and CPI’s K. Subbarayan.
However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi later said that Parthiban’s suspension had been revoked after it was brought to the notice of Speaker Om Birla that the DMK MP was not among those protesting in the well of the House.
Opposition MPs started protesting right after both Houses convened in the morning at 11 a.m.
In Lok Sabha, sloganeering opposition MPs demanded the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah. Both Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla and Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tried to pacify the agitated MPs.
Addressing the House, Sigh said that in future, all MPs have to be more careful about who they are giving passes too. “It should not lead to such anarchy…. We should all condemn such incidents, there is no need to protest,” he said.
According to police sources, one of the accused in Wednesday’s security breach collected passes to the visitors’ gallery from the secretary of BJP MP Pratap Simha. It is not yet known how the accused knew the MP or his secretary.
Despite Singh’s attempts, however, the protests continued unabated, forcing Birla to adjourn the House till 2 p.m. The House was later adjourned again till 3 p.m.
The Rajya Sabha too witnessed similar pandemonium.
The Opposition — from the Congress to the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) — remained focused on the security breach, linking the incident with anger among the youth over the issue of unemployment, which they claimed had pushed the accused to enter Parliament to protest against the government’s policies.
O’Brien and other Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha also demanded that Union Home Minister Amit Shah gives a statement to the House. Suspending O’Brien for his alleged “ignoble misconduct”, Dhankhar sais that the MP disrupted the proceedings of the House by entering the well and “continuously shouting slogans gesticulating at the Chair”.
Earlier in the day, Opposition members had met in the chamber of the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, and demanded a probe into the matter.
Wednesday’s security breach comes on the anniversary of the 13 December attack on the old Parliament building 22 years ago, which had killed eight security personnel and a gardener. All five terrorists were also killed. Former Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front militant who had surrendered in 1994, Afzal Guru was hanged in 2013 for his role in the incident.
What raises further questions about Wednesday’s security breach is that just days ago, US-Canada-based Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun threatened to attack the Indian “Parliament on or before 13 December”, following which, intelligence sources said, the security had been “stepped up”.
‘Should speak in one voice’
The motion for O’Brien’s suspension was moved by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, Piyush Goel, who accused the TMC MP of “continuously violating rule, shouting and sloganeering”.
While adopting the motion and suspending O’Brien, Dhankhar accused him of “defying the chair, despite repeated warning.” “He came into the well [of the House] and the House adopts the motion to suspend him for the remaining period of the House [during the winter session],” the Rajya Sabha chairman added.
Critisising the Opposition reaction to Wednesday’s incident, Dhankhar said, “What message are we sending to the country and the world. It is shameful. I am forced to name a few members of house who have disrespected house decorum and breached the privilege of the house. This is serious defiance… Derek, you have defied the chair.”
Meanwhile, when the Lok Sabha reconvened at 2 p.m., Opposition MPs continued their protests and sloganeering, demanding that home minister Amit Shah make a statement.
This time, Joshi stood up to make a statement and told the MPs that since it’s a matter that concerns all members, “we should speak in one voice”.
He urged the opposition MPs to not politicise the issue. Referring to similar incidents in the past, where visitors had entered the Parliament carrying firearm and dagger, Joshi said that he is not condoning Wednesday’s incident and it should be dealt with according to the law of the land.
“Our government is sensitive to the incident. But, I am sorry to say that it has become a habit for some members to politicise all such issues,” he said.
With protests continuing in both Houses, Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day, to be reconvened Friday.
Political row
Wednesday’s Parliament security breach has resulted in a full-blown war of words, with Trinamool Congress demanding MP Simha’s expulsion.
“Our MP Mahua Moitra was unjustly expelled for allegedly breaching national security by sharing her login credentials [a reference to the cash for query case against her]. Today, BJP Karnataka MP Pratap Simha put the security of the entire Parliament at risk by issuing a visitor’s pass to the intruders,” the Trinamool Congress (TMC) said in a post on social media platform X.
In a post on X Thursday, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the INDIA bloc of Opposition parties demanded a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah on the security breach.
Some BJP leaders meanwhile targeted Opposition Congress, the party’s in-charge of national information and technology department Amit Malviya saying “DNA of those, who breached Parliament security, is inextricably linked to the Congress-Communist axis”.
The party’s general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santhosh said the incident was “again a toolkit gang activity to show nation in poor light, create unrest, demean leadership”.
Santhosh was referring to the 2021 controversy over an alleged Congress toolkit targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public image, over the Centre’s handling of the Covid pandemic.
(This is an updated version of the report.)
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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