The Winter Session of Parliament has witnessed a series of disruptions and suspensions of Opposition MPs, who have been demanding a statement from the Home Minister on the security breach in Parliament on December 13.
On Tuesday, 49 more Lok Sabha MPs belonging to the Opposition INDIA bloc were suspended from the House for the remainder of the session, taking the total number of suspensions during the session to 141 - 95 from Lok Sabha and 46 from Rajya Sabha.
The MPs suspended on Tuesday include prominent leaders such as National Conference's Farooq Abdullah, Congress's Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari and Karti Chidambaram, Samajwadi Party's Dimple Yadav and NCP's Supriya Sule.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi accused the protesting members of being "frustrated" over the recent assembly election results and said they were trying to "derail" the functioning of the House.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also slammed the Opposition leaders for their "antics" and said they would not return to the Lok Sabha "even in the current strength" in the 2024 general elections. He said some people were "not destined to do constructive work" and were only interested in creating "obstacles".
The Opposition parties have condemned the action, calling it "a complete purge" and "'Namocracy' in all its tyranny". They have accused the BJP government of trying to bulldoze key legislations in an "Opposition-less" Parliament.
The Winter Session of Parliament, which commenced on December 4, will conclude on December 22.
