NEW DELHI: When Bertolt Brecht wrote his acid account of the subversion of democracies by autocratic regimes, he would have hardly had the Indian parliament in mind.

In a move that would make the legendary German playwright’s spirit squirm, the two houses of India’s parliament on Monday saw the suspension of a total of 78 opposition MPs taking the toll of suspended MPs from December 15 to 92.

While 33 MPs were suspended in the Lok Sabha, 45 were suspended in the Rajya Sabha. On December 14, a total of 14 MPs (13 in Lok Sabha and one in Rajya Sabha) were suspended.

The suspensions come as both houses of parliament saw repeated adjournments amid calls from opposition MPs for a statement from Union home minister Amit Shah on the security breach in parliament on December 13, when two men jumped from the public gallery into the Lok Sabha hall and opened smoke canisters.

Earlier on Monday, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla said that a high-level probe is already looking into the security breach and some of the suggestions given by opposition MPs have been implemented while others will also be looked into.

“It is sad that politics is being done on this. To enter the well of the house and do sloganeering and disrupt the proceedings is against the dignity of the house,” he said. When the house resumed proceedings in the afternoon, parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion to suspend 30 opposition MPs for “misconduct” and “utter disregard” to the chair.

Three other Congress MPs’ suspension has been referred to the Privileges Committee, The Wire news portal said.

In the Rajya Sabha leader of the house Piyush Goyal moved a motion to suspend 34 members of the opposition for “misconduct” and “continuously shouting slogans and even entered the well of the house during the course of the day thereby violating the rules of the house”.

Following the suspensions on Monday, opposition MPs have lashed out at the Modi government for being “autocratic”.

Rajya Sabha MP and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that “democratic norms are being thrown into the dustbin by an autocratic Modi Govt by suspending 47 MPs”.

“With an Opposition-less Parliament, the Modi Govt can now bulldoze important pending legislations, crush any dissent, without any debate,” he wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

He added that the opposition’s demands include a statement from Shah on the security breach and a discussion in both houses. After the suspensions in the Rajya Sabha, Congress’s Jairam Ramesh who was also suspended said that it was “a bloodbath in the Rajya Sabha with 45 INDIA party MPs getting suspended for demanding a statement by the Home Minister”. “Incidentally, I too figure in this Roll of Honour — for the first time in my parliamentary career of 19 years,” he wrote on X. “This is Murder of Democracy in India (MODI) at work!”

Gaurav Gogoi, one of the MPs suspended on Monday, accused the Modi government of depriving the rights of the people of the country.

“They are bulldozing the opposition and crushing the moral rights of people in the House. It makes evident that they don’t have the intention to run the House,” he told the news agency PTI. “In order to hide Shah’s failure in protecting parliament they are stooping to these measures.”

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2023