Travesty of parliamentary democracy: Shashi Tharoor on suspension of MPs

Slamming the government over the suspension of over 140 MPs Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday claimed that a dubious record had been created as in no country had so many lawmakers been suspended together and alleged that parliamentary democracy has been betrayed and reduced to a travestySpeaking with reporters after participating in the opposition protest over the suspension of MPs Tharoor who was himself suspended on Tuesday said that with the suspension of so many opposition MPs the history of parliamentary democracy has been besmirched in our countryWhat has been seen in the country in the last few days is a travesty of parliamentary democracy he saidI did a bit of research never in the entire history of Parliamentary democracy has any Parliament in any country in the world ever suspended or expelled 150 people That is the dubious record being set in our Parliament this week he saidEveryone understands that the basic principle of parliamentary democracy is the accountability of the council of ministers to Parliament Tharoor saidWhen Parliament is in session on anything that happens the governments duty is to come to Parliament and discuss it with them before going out he saidWhen the opposition called for a discussion on the security breach and requested that the home minister should come and speak to Parliament as you all know the home minister did not come he was giving statements outside to the media he was giving press interviews but he was not prepared to speak inside Parliament This is why the opposition protested and I must say that the reaction has been disproportionate to the actual offense of protesting Tharoor assertedThe protest was for a very democratic parliamentary reason which is to have the home minister come and initiate a discussion the Thiruvananthapuram MP saidAs many as 49 more opposition lawmakers were suspended from Lok Sabha on Tuesday for unruly behaviour taking the total number of MPs facing action in both Houses of Parliament to 141 and prompting the INDIA coalition to announce nationwide antigovernment protests on FridayTharoor stressed that the opposition had come to this Winter Session determined to cooperate fully with the functioning of ParliamentThe opposition wanted to participate in major debates on matters of national importance he saidBut what has been seen sadly is that the government has no interest in letting the opposition function responsibly in Parliament he allegedWe have seen when we were in power how important it was to accommodate the oppositions interest If we had been in this position we would have had the home minister come for 10 minutes we would have had a discussion for half an hour or 45 minutes that would have defused the situation Instead time has been wasted the history of parliamentary democracy has been besmirched in our country he saidToday we are leaving this House in the feeling that our entire parliamentary democracy has been betrayed and reduced to a travesty Tharoor addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever