"Home Minister should explain what happened in Parliament,...": Suspended Kerala MP

Lok Sabha MPs from Kerala--Thomas Chazhikadan and AM Arif--were suspended today for misconduct in the Lower House.

Speaking on his suspension, MP Chazhikadan stated, "The demand of the opposition is that the Home Minister come to the House and explain what happened in the House on the 13th (security breach incident) and how it happened."

He alleged that the government failed to provide security, highlighting an alleged threat call against Parliament two weeks ago.

"Earlier, about two weeks ago, somebody from Khalistan or Canada had threatened to attack the Parliament on the day of the anniversary of the earlier attack. The government and security at Parliament should have been on alert. If they had been, then such an incident as this would not have happened," MP Chazhikadan said.

"Now the Home Minister is not even ready to explain this in Parliament. I was also there with the other suspended MPs when they were protesting outside Parliament yesterday. But no action was taken then. Today, when we joined the protests, I got suspended," he added.

MP Arif said that the Centre is not ready to reply in the Parliament.

"We demand a statement from the Home Minister on what happened on the 13th. They were not ready to answer in the House, so we protested and got suspended," MP Arif said.

A total of 143 MPs--97 from Lok Sabha and 46 from Rajya Sabha--were suspended so far for creating a ruckus and disrupting proceedings in both Houses, demanding a statement from Union Minister Amit Shah with regard to the Parliament security breach incident.

Earlier in the day, the opposition MPs, including those suspended, staged a protest in front of the Gandhi statue in the Parliament premises against the bulk suspension.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Parliamentary leader Sonia Gandhi led the protest from the Congress' side, while other opposition MPs, including those suspended, joined in the protest. (ANI)