After the suspension of numerous Members of Parliament in the recently concluded Winter Session, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi slammed the Opposition parties for disrupting proceedings.
During the 18-day session, the Lok Sabha witnessed a security breach, following which the Opposition demanded a statement from the Union Home Minister. The request was rejected. The Opposition MPs then protested and carried placards into the well of the House. This resulted in the record suspension of 146 MPs.
Interestingly, when Arun Jaitley was the Leader of the Opposition during the UPA-II government, he had said that while parliamentary obstruction should be avoided, disruptions are a “legitimate tactic of the Opposition” if “parliamentary accountability is subverted”. Similarly, Sushma Swaraj, when she was the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, had said that “not allowing Parliament to function is also a form of democracy, like any other form”.
