For the first time, a group comprising members of the ruling party has been suspended in Parliament
OUR BUREAU New Delhi In an unprecedented action, the Congress Party on Tuesday got eight of its members in the Lok Sabha sus
pended for four days for causing disruption in the House over the Telangana issue.
This is the first time that a group comprising members of the ruling party has been suspended in Parliament. At the height of the controversy over Bofors, 30 members from the Opposition were suspended for causing pandemonium in the House.
The political decision to discipline them was taken by Sonia Gandhi after the members continued their blockade of the House in support of their demand for creation of a separate state of Telangana. They even refused to heed to requests from senior party leaders to end demonstrations, which led to two adjournments in the fore- noon.
All the suspended members were elected on Congress tickets from the Telangana region.
Sonia decided to crack the whip after the Opposition protested against the ruling partys failure to discipline its MPs. The Opposition further blamed the Prime Minister for his indecision on Telangana.
The Opposition was, however, taken aback when Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, leader of the House, met Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj as also Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav and Gurudas Dasgupta to convey the decision to suspend the agitating Congress MPs.
Sonia held a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the second adjournment and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was asked to warn the agitating MPs of action if they repeated the ruckus in the afternoon. They had disrupted the House for days together in the first half of the budget session.
The governments worry is that such disruptions will derail its plans of getting important legislation passed. Observers felt that the action against ruling party members was also a signal to the Opposition to restrain its members.
Sonia, however, is understood to have also told the Prime Minister that the party can ill- afford to keep postponing the decision on Telangana and that the time has come to say ‘no’to the demand. Andhra Pradesh is crucial for the Congress as it sends the third highest ( 42) MPs to the Lok Sabha after Uttar Pradesh ( 80) and Maharashtra ( 48).
Overseas Minister Vayalar Ravi, who was dispatched to Hyderabad to study the ground realities, is understood to have given a report to Sonia that the Congress still has a chance to retain Andhra Pradesh, provided the State is not split. But Jagan Reddy, MP and son of late chief minister YSR Reddy, would surely sweep the election, if Telangana were created.
Even before Parliament resumed session on Tuesday after a 3- week recess, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ravi had a meeting with the eight MPs to persuade them not to disrupt the proceedings.
During the adjournment, PMO Minister V Narayanasamy also approached them in the Central Hall and warned that they would be suspended from the House. He was, however, rebuffed by the MPs, who told him to ‘go ahead’with the suspension. They further told him that they were desperate because the indecisiveness on Telangana will blank out their political future.
However, they were back on the front benches with placards, raising slogans in the post- lunch session when Goa MP Francisco Sardinha took the chair as the presiding officer. He repeatedly warned them before asking Bansal to pilot a motion for their suspension.
The Congress sources ruled out any crisis in the House because of suspension of the party MPs as no important business is listed this week and their suspension will be over on April 30. The discussion and voting on the crucial Finance Bill takes place only on May 7 and 8.
The suspended MPs put the entire blame on the indecisive Prime Minister for sitting tight on the popular demand to create a separate state of Telangana. He had not acted for 16 months even after getting a
