Following Gujarat "model"?: MPs' maiden suspension "preceded" two dozen similar incidents in Gujarat under Modi

While the suspension of 25 members of Parliament (MPs) for creating “ruckus” in the Lok Sabha may have created a flutter in Delhi among political observers, those who are in Gujarat are not surprised. In fact, the event is being described as nothing but Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to follow the so-called Gujarat model.
An official compilation by the Gujarat state assembly suggests this: Between 2003, after Modi won his first electoral victory riding on the Hindutva wave in the wake of the 2002 communal riots, and 2015, that on as many as 30 occasions the state’s Congress law makers were suspended. In fact, on several occasions, all Congress MLAs were suspended. Of these, two dozen suspensions took place till Modi was in power in Gujarat up to May 2014.
Not that ways of suspending MLAs was anything new for Modi. It had also taken place in 1996-97, when BJP rebel leader, and now Congress leader, Shankarsinh Vaghela’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ruled. Under Vaghela’s directions, as chief minister of Gujarat, BJP MLAs were suspended from the assembly on several occasions. It continued under BJP 1998-2001 under Keshubhai Patel's chief ministership, till Modi replaced him in October 2001.
Inheriting his ex-mentor Vaghela’s ways, Modi followed suit to pass crucial bills in the state assembly without any discussion, such as the controversial Gujarat Lokayukta Bill in 2013. The Bill had sought to displace the Gujarat High Court chief justice with the chief minister as chairman of the five-person selection committee, virtually putting the anti-corruption watchdog directly in the lap of the ruling establishment.
Then governor Kamla Beniwal, just a month earlier, on September 3, had returned the bill, passed by the assembly on April 2, to the government for reconsideration, dubbing the legislation as "complete mockery of the judicial process and detrimental to the interests of public welfare". The protesting opposition MLAs were suspended from the assembly for unruly scenes.There were occasions when not one but as many as five bills were passed in the assembly without discussion, as Congress MLAs stood suspended.
Causes for which Congress MLAs – sometimes all, and on other times several of them – were suspended included demanding discussion on major issues, including such events like a major tragedy leading to the death of several persons on consumption of spurious liquor in 2009. When Congress MLAs demanded discussion on the issue in the assembly session in July 2009, 14 Congress MLAs were suspended for a day.
The latest suspension of 25 MPs from the Lok Sabha has been described as a “black day for democracy” by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, with even party MP from Kerala Shashi Tharoor – who was found to be moving away from her – protested saying that “many leaders will face some real difficulties in participating with the government and the committees of Parliament as long as the ‘discriminatory attitude’ against the opposition continues.”
“It is wrong. In fact, many of us will have some real difficulties in participating with the government and committees of Parliament as long as this discriminatory attitude continues against the opposition,” said Tharoor, adding, “The government should be reaching out to the opposition rather than throwing it out of the House.”
Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan, while suspending more than half of the Congress MPs for carrying placards and shouting slogans demanding the resignation of top BJP leaders over the Lalit Modi controversy and the Vyapam scam, said she took the step for for "persistently, wilfully obstructing the House".
"Like in Gujarat where opposition members used to get suspended, similar thing is happening here. It is the Gujarat model which is being implemented," Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, told reporters after a day of ruckus in Parliament.

Comments

Gujarat No 1 here too? Cops justify torture: 'Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis naturally prone to crimes'

A new report, "Status of Policing in India Report 2025: Police Torture and (Un)Accountability", states that Gujarat tops the list of 16 states and one Union Territory, with 63% of its police personnel "strongly endorsing" torture. Furthermore, 49% of Gujarat’s police personnel were found to have what the report calls a "high propensity" for torture, considering it "necessary and acceptable" for obtaining information across various crime categories—second only to Jharkhand (50%). In sharp contrast, Kerala has the lowest percentage of police personnel "justifying" torture (3%) and the lowest "high propensity" for violence (1%).

A traditional Marxian view? Like N-weapons, AI poses 'existential threat' to human civilization

The other day, I was talking with YS Gill , whom I have known as an incisive analyst since my youth, when he, like me, was associated with the Communist Party of India (CPI). A passionate science activist committed to creating awareness of scientific thinking, he told me about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it would lead to mass unemployment. Predicting that AI would replace human intervention in India’s call centers, he estimated that about 70 lakh people would be rendered jobless.

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's hype with eye on UP polls: Keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Will Trump govt use US religious freedom report to further pressure India into submission?

Already under pressure from the Trump administration, which has reportedly asked India—successfully, some would say—to remove high tariffs on American products, there is reason to wonder whether Washington might use the recommendations of the latest United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Annual Report to further act against the Government of India.

Patriot, Link: How Soviet imbroglio post-1968 influenced alternative media platforms

Adatata Narayanan, Aruna Asaf Ali Alternative media, as we know it today in the age of information and communication technology (ICT), didn't exist in the form it does today during or around the time I joined formal journalism at Link Newsweekly as a sub-editor in January 1979. However, Link, and its sister publication Patriot, a daily—both published from Delhi—were known to have provided what could be called an alternative media platform at a time when major Delhi-based dailies were controlled by media barons.

Martyrs’ Day at Sanand: Remembering Vinod Kinariwala amidst politics of remembrance

I was urged by a close relative, considered across my family as a binding force, to attend a grand ceremony on Martyrs' Day, March 23, along with four other relatives. The event, called Veeranjali (homage to martyrs), was to be held in an open space near Sanand town, about 15 kilometers from Ahmedabad. Martyrs' Day has been observed across India since independence, as it was on this day in 1931 that Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru were executed.

Of lingering shadow of Haren Pandya's murder during Modi's Gujarat years

Sunita Williams’ return to Earth has, ironically, reopened an old wound: the mysterious murder of her first cousin, the popular BJP leader Haren Pandya, in 2003. Initially a supporter of Narendra Modi, Haren turned against him, not sparing any opportunity to do things that would embarrass Modi. Social media and some online news portals, including The Wire , are abuzz with how Modi’s recent invitation to Sunita to visit India comes against the backdrop of how he, as Gujarat’s chief minister, didn’t care to offer any official protocol support during her 2007 visit to Gujarat.

Search This Blog