New Delhi: Opposition lawmakers Tuesday hit out at the government after 49 more Lok Sabha members were suspended from the House, calling Parliament a graveyard of the Constitution and comparing it with the North Korean assembly.
The suspension of 49 Lok Sabha MPs came a day after, a total of 78 — 33 from the Lower House and 45 from the Upper House — lawmakers were suspended from Parliament for disrupting proceedings.
Reacting strongly to the developments, Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal said, “The graveyard of the constitution is visible here”.
“Opposition MPs whose job is to raise questions in Parliament are thrown for doing their job…This is the new India… See it,” she said outside Parliament.
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said Parliament will soon resemble the North Korean assembly. “We are going to resemble North Korean assembly and only thing missing is synchronised clapping when the PM walks in. This is going to be a token house,” he said.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said what is happening is “disgraceful to be very blunt”.
“They have no desire to have a democratic system of parliamentary democracy at work. What they are interested in is to have a opposition-mukt Lok Sabha. So, we are seeing a situation where we feel there is no respect for parliamentary democracy,” he said.
Manish Tewari, Congress MP, said Parliament has been totally delegitimised. “This is to lay the framework of passing the most draconian law in parliament which will turn this country into a police state,” he said.
He was referring to three bills which seeks to replace the three colonial-era criminal laws.
Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav who was also present on the Parliament premises said the BJP speaks of the temple of democracy, but with what face will they call it the temple of democracy now when they have expelled the opposition.
“This is their way of imposing their own will. And if they come back next time, then the constitution of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar is finished; we and you will not be able to enter through this door,” he said.
Yadav in a post on X later took a swipe at the Centre asking it what the need was for a new Parliament, when most MPs had be put under suspension.
“The public is asking that when the MPs had to be suspended, then why was a new Parliament made in the name of “big parliament’ with more capacity.
“It would have been better if the BJP government had built a new room for two-three people in the old Parliament itself, because in this government neither one is allowed to ask questions, nor any discussion, and whatever decisions are taken, they are taken by only a few people,” he said.
PTI