New Delhi: A day after Wednesday’s Parliament security breach — when two men jumped onto the members’ benches from the visitors’ gallery and threw a smoke canister — Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien was suspended from the House by chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar Thursday, for sloganeering and demanding a discussion on the incident.
O’Brien has been suspended for the rest of the winter session for his alleged “ignoble misconduct”, with Dhankhar saying that the MP disrupted the proceedings of the House by entering the well and “continuously shouting slogans gesticulating at the Chair”.
The Opposition — from the Congress to the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) — remained focused on the security breach Thursday, 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 gave a statement to the House on Wednesday’s security breach. 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 incident 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”.
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‘Defied the chair’
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.”
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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