Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Pattanayak.
Credit: X/@NSUIOdisha__
Bhubaneswar: I.N.D.I.A bloc leaders on Tuesday sought the intervention of President Droupadi Murmu over the suspension of 141 opposition MPs from Parliament.
They demanded that the MPs be allowed to participate in the remainder of the winter session.
Forty-nine Lok Sabha MPs were suspended from the House for disrupting proceedings on Tuesday, a day after 78 opposition members were suspended from Parliament. With the fresh suspension, a total of 141 MPs from both houses have been suspended since December 14.
Strongly condemning the suspension of the opposition MPs, a delegation of I.N.D.I.A bloc leaders led by Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Pattanayak submitted a memorandum to the President through state Governor Raghubar Das.
Terming the suspension of the MPs as 'unfortunate and undemocratic', the I.N.D.I.A bloc leaders, in their memorandum, said that it was an almost unprecedented move.
"Debate and discussion are a cardinal principle of democracy. But the present Modi dispensation does not like any debate and discussion in Parliament," the memorandum read.
The memorandum alleged that the government wants to bulldoze key legislations in opposition-less Parliament and pass the vote on account without any participation of the opposition.
"This is nothing but a clear negation of the parliamentary system of democracy which we had inherited. The opposition has the right to expose manifolds. They have not committed any mistake in demanding a statement from the Home Minister of India regarding the security breach in Parliament," it said.
The opposition leaders said the Union Home Minister is giving a press statement outside Parliament but has no time to give a statement on the floor of the Parliament.
In a major security breach on the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack, two men jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery during Zero Hour on December 13, released a yellow-coloured smoke from canisters and raised slogans, before being overpowered by the MPs.