Record 141 Opposition MPs suspended from Parliament

A total of 92 Opposition MPs were suspended from Parliament on Monday - the highest during a single session - for holding protests and raising slogans over the December 13 Lok Sabha security breach.

National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Karti Chidambaram, NCP's Supriya Sule and Samajwadi Party's Dimple Yadav are among the MPs suspended by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for disrupting proceedings today.    

With this, the Opposition I.N.D.I.A bloc lost almost half its strength in Rajya Sabha and one-third in Lok Sabha.

Reacting to the suspension of 49 opposition MPs from the Parliament for the remainder of the winter session, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) MP Supriya Sule said, We were standing up for the farmers and demanding an enquiry (into the Parliament security breach). Why will you suspend us if we demand something for farmers? The culprit is still sitting inside (the Parliament). This is an emergency.

"They (government) don't have faith in democracy. This is their definition of new India that those questioning the government be suspended," says MP Danish Ali on suspension of 49 Lok Sabha MPs.

Notably, the spree of suspensions began last week. A day after the security breach, Opposition MPs started demanding a statement by the Home Minister. Thirteen Lok Sabha MPs and one Rajya Sabha MP were suspended on the grounds of unruly behaviour. Yesterday, the Opposition MPs resumed their protest. This led to a record 79 suspensions across both Houses. Today's 49 add to the spree.

Today's suspensions came after Opposition members raised slogans and some of them came to the Well of the House. Many of the MPs waved placards and some carried a morphed picture of Prime Minister Modi. The Speaker said it was against the rules to bring placards into the House.