REPORT-4

For the first time in Indian parliamentary history, as many as eight Congress MPs were suspended from the Lok Sabha for four days for repeatedly disrupting the House over Telangana issue on the recommendation of the ruling party itself. Significantly, the decision to suspend the MPs, all from the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, was taken by none other than party president Sonia Gandhi herself at a hurriedly convened meeting of the Congress core committee.

The suspended MPs—Ponnam Prabhakar, Madhu Yaskhi Goud, M Jagannath, KRG Reddy, G Viveknanda, Balram Naik, Sukender Reddy Gutha and S Rajaiah—did not allow the second half of parliament's budget session that began on April, 24, to function normally. The Lok Sabha passed the motion moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister PK Bansal for suspending the Congress MPs by a voice vote after an intense debate.

In between the adjournments, Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee consulted Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj and leaders of other political parties to determine how the rebellious MPs should be dealt with. The Congress wanted to take a tough line and suspend the eight MPs for the rest of the budget session to set an example, but CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta stiffly opposed such a “harsh” punishment and suggested that the suspension should be only for four days. Sources said Dasgupta’s view prevailed because he was supported to the hilt by Sushma Swaraj and other political leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sharad Yadav who too were present at the impromptu meeting.

Pawar livid

NCP supremo and UPA coalition partner Sharad Pawar has objected to the government move to suspend eight Congress MPs from Telangana as the NCP was not informed earlier on this issue. A livid Pawar is understood to have conveyed his displeasure to the government contending that a wrong message is being sent about the UPA's functioning and this would give a handle to Opposition to criticise the UPA. The NCP is also learnt to have disagreed with the government’s rationale in suspending the Congress MPs as part of the Congress party’s “grand strategy to address the issue at the ground level,” sources said.