'Democracy has been strangulated': Congress' Sonia Gandhi on suspension of 141 MPs

Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday criticised the Narendra Modi government over the suspension of Opposition MPs in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament.

At the annual CCP conference in New Delhi, "Never before have so many Opposition MPs been suspended from the house (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha), and that too, simply for raising a perfectly reasonable and legitimate demand."

"All that the opposition MPs asked for was a statement to be made by the (Union) Home Minister in the Lok Sabha addressing the extraordinary events of December 13," she continued, supporting the opposition MPs' demands to speak with Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the December 13 breach of parliamentary security.

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The actions of December 13th, according to Gandhi, are "inexcusable and cannot be justified". "The Prime Minister addressed the country and shared his thoughts on the tragedy four days later, speaking outside of Parliament. He made it quite evident by doing this how much he detested the people of our nation and the honour of the house. I'll let you speculate as to how the BJP may have reacted if they had been in the opposition today," she remarked.

"I leave it to you to imagine how the BJP would have responded had they been in Opposition today...," she added.

A total of 141 Opposition MPs from the two Houses have been suspended over the past week after they held protests demanding the Home Minister's statement. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has maintained that security in the House comes under the purview of the secretariat and that he will not let the government intervene in the matter.

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• Congress
• Sonia Gandhi
• PM Modi
• BJP
• Lok Sabha
• Om Birla