New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday announced the withdrawal of the suspension of all seven Congress MPs after all members in the House in a voice vote gave their nod to the proposal presented by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal.
Birla took the decision following a short debate by members representing their parties in the House. The debate began in the Lower House after an all party meeting was chaired by the Speaker in his chamber in Parliament.
Before announcing the withdrawal of the March 5 suspension order against the Congress MPs, Birla said: “All members have expressed their views. They talked about India’s unity. Whenever the question is raised against Parliament, all members try to maintain the dignity of the House because it is a temple of expectations of 130 crore Indians.”
“Everybody wants that Parliament should be sacred. Last two sessions have been excellent. Despite disruptions, the House was not suspended. I am personally unhappy over whatever incident happened in the House in the last few days. Showing placard in Parliament, throwing papers and other things was not good.
“I was told that there had been similar disruptions in the past too. But, I want to ask if these were good things and were they necessary.”
Referring to the all party meeting, Birla said several parties assured that their members will not come to the well.
“I am happy over this assurance. Agreement and disagreement is a natural instinct. But we should not cross the limits and respect the dignity of the House. I don’t want to take decisions to suspend members of the House for their conduct.”
The Congress members who had been suspended included T.N. Prathapan, Dean Kuriakosh, Gaurav Gogoi, Unnithan, Gurpreet Singh Aujala, Benny Behanan and Manikkam Tagore.
The suspension was to remain in place for the rest of the Budget Session which ends on April 3.
The action came about after the Congress party MPs snatched a copy of a Bill, tore the papers and tossed them at Rama Devi who was in the Chair at the time.
Parliament resumed proceedings on Wednesday after it was adjourned on March 6.
Ever since Parliament resumed the Budget session on March 2, the Congress MPs had been disrupting proceedings with slogans demanding the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah over the violence that shook several parts of northeast Delhi from February 23 to 25.
