Responding to the nationwide protest call given by the All India Congress Committee (AICC), Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) staged a protest rally against the suspension of 146 INDIA bloc MPs during the recently concluded Winter Session of the Parliament. The protest was held at Congress Bhavan, Kohima on December 22, 2023.
NPCC through its communications department stated that the opposition MPs belonging to both the houses of Parliament were suspended because they demanded a statement from the Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the Parliament security breach by two intruders who jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery and opened canisters. NPCC said the two intruders’ entry was facilitated by a BJP MP.
Slamming the government over suspension of MPs, Congress party asserted that “such blatant abuse of power by the government of the day at the centre is unprecedented in the modern history of Parliamentary democracy in India and the rest of the world, and cannot be condemned enough.”
NPCC claimed that the “actual reason” for which the Modi government resorted to mass suspension was to ensure the passage of consequential bills without any meaningful parliamentary discussions and debates.
It said that the bills passed “under these subversive environment’ included the three “draconian” Criminal Justice Bills, which seeks to arm the state with “overarching draconian powers to impede on the rights of its citizens”. NPCC said that the “equally draconian and sinister” Postal and Telecoms Bills was basically an open license to the government to snoop and pry on any and every individual in complete contravention of universally accepted personal privacy rights.
Further, it said the passage of Chief Election Commissioner Appointment Bill, under which the Chief Justice of India has been dropped from the selection panel entrusted, sounded the death knell of the “already heavily assaulted integrity and independence of the apex electoral institution of the country.”
Stating that Congress party refused to “cower down” to the “bullying tactics” of the BJP, the NPCC affirmed to continue condemning and opposing their agenda to destroy the democratic principles upon which the founding fathers built the nation.