India speaker suspends 25 MPs for 'disrupting' parliament
- Published
The speaker of India's parliament has suspended 25 opposition MPs for "causing grave disruption".
Sumitra Mahajan said the MPs, all from the Congress party, were suspended for "five consecutive days".
She had earlier warned the MPs who had been protesting with placards in the well of the house.
Continuous opposition protests have meant that almost no work has been carried out in the parliamentary session that began in July.
The Lok Sabha or the lower house of the parliament was adjourned immediately after the order was announced.
"This is the most undemocratic thing which has been done today. In the last two decades, I have not seen such a thing. The voice of opposition is being muzzled," Congress leader Rajeev Shukla told reporters outside the parliament.
Members of two smaller opposition parties have said they will boycott parliament for five days in solidarity with the suspended Congress MPs.
Earlier, Ms Mahajan ran the proceedings amid slogan-shouting and disruptions, news agency Press Trust of India reported. She refused to adjourn the house despite more than 40 opposition MPs holding noisy protests and displaying placards.
Opposition parties are demanding the resignations of Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for helping former IPL cricket chief Lalit Modi, who lives in London and is wanted by Indian authorities.
They are also demanding the resignation of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over his alleged involvement in India's massive medical school admissions examination scandal.
The government has rejected the demands.
An all-party meeting held earlier on Monday failed to break the nearly fortnight-long deadlock.