Opposition lawmakers are accusing India\u2019s government of an attack on democracy after dozens of them were suspended from parliament this week, the latest twist in a historic dispute between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a newly formed alliance that is seeking to unseat them next year. <\/p>\n
Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s BJP has a majority in both houses and is now expected to legislate almost unopposed for the remainder of the session that ends Friday. <\/p>\n
The suspensions come as parliament is set to debate a controversial criminal reform bill, which Mallikarjun Kharge, chief of the main opposition Congress party, has said could \u201cunleash draconian powers and impede citizen\u2019s rights.\u201d <\/p>\n
Modi\u2019s government \u201cdoes not want the people of India to hear out the Opposition, while these Bills are debated and deliberated,\u201d he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. <\/p>\n
The suspensions were enacted following\u00a0a major security breach in parliament last week when two men stormed the chamber, chanting slogans and releasing colored gas. The opposition lawmakers demanded a parliamentary debate on the breach \u2013 only to be suspended by their respective house speakers for causing disorder. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time in my parliamentary career of nearly 15 years, I too entered the well of the House holding a placard calling for a discussion on the recent security breach,\u201d Shashi Tharoor, a suspended Congress lawmaker, wrote on X. \u201cI did so out of solidarity with my (Congress) colleagues, who have been unjustly suspended for demanding accountability from the government.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jairam Ramesh, another suspended Congress lawmaker,\u00a0described the suspensions as a \u201ccomplete purge.\u201d The removal of opposition lawmakers occurred \u201cso that draconian bills are passed without meaningful debate,\u201d he claimed on X. <\/p>\n
Describing the suspensions as a \u201crecord number,\u201d the New York-based Human Rights Foundation said it \u201cstrongly condemns India\u2019s ongoing crackdown on the opposition and critics,\u201d in a statement posted on X on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Most of the suspended MPs are part of an alliance known as INDIA, a coalition of opposition parties that is looking to defeat Modi and the BJP in next year\u2019s general election, expected in May. <\/p>\n
The BJP has been repeatedly accused by its critics of stifling opposition and undermining democracy in parliament. It has repeatedly denied the allegations. <\/p>\n
In an interview with a Hindi-language newspaper on Sunday, Modi said the security breach was a serious matter that should be investigated, but one that does not require a parliamentary debate. <\/p>\n\n
Opposition lawmakers are accusing India\u2019s government of an attack on democracy after dozens of them were suspended from parliament this week, the latest twist in a historic dispute between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a newly formed alliance that is seeking to unseat them next year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s BJP has a <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}