Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack at the Centre over the suspension of 141 opposition MPs in Parliament saying the “democracy has been strangulated by the government”. Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting at the Central hall of Sanvidhan Sadan, Parliament House, Sonia Gandhi said, “Never before have so many opposition members of Parliament been suspended from the house, and that too, simply for raising a perfectly reasonable and legitimate demand.”

A total of 141 opposition MPs have been suspended from both Houses of Parliament over the past week after they held protests and raised slogans demanding union home minister Amit Shah’s statement on the December 13 security breach incident. In the latest batch of suspension, 49 opposition MPs including NCP’s Supriya Sule, Congress’ Shashi Tharoor, and Manish Tewari, among others were suspended for the remainder of the winter session on Tuesday for staging a protest.

Condemning the security breach of Parliament, Sonia Gandhi said what happened was “inexcusable and cannot be justified”. She further slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for expressing his views on the incident four days later.

“…By so doing, he clearly indicated his disdain for the dignity of the house and his disregard for the people of our country,” she said.

PM Modi on security breach of Parliament and Opposition’s protests

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday expressed his views on the security breach in the Parliament saying that the “seriousness of the incident cannot be underestimated” and called for no squabbling over the issue. Calling for a detailed investigation into the incident, Modi during an interview with Hindi daily ‘Dainik Jagran’ said, “What happened is very serious…There is no need to debate this.”

Meanwhile, Modi also took a swipe at the opposition parties over the protests and alleged disruption of Parliament proceedings following the December 13 incident, saying “some people are not inclined to do constructive work”. Speaking at a closed-door meeting of the BJP’s Parliamentary Party, the PM accused opposition leaders of giving a “political spin” to the security breach incident saying, “they seem determined not to come back to the Lok Sabha”.