This columnist was suspended from Parliament on December 14, 2023, for submitting a notice demanding a statement from the Home Minister and a discussion on “the serious breach of national security in Parliament”. Since then, this columnist has been on a maun vrat (silent protest). This is the columnist’s first communication after the nine-day self-imposed maun vrat. No commentary. Just facts.
At noon on December 14, the first MP was suspended. At the time of going to press, another 145 MPs have subsequently been banned from both Houses of Parliament. To provide some perspective, consider this: Across 10 years of UPA I and UPA II, about 50 MPs were suspended from Parliament.
A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the 100 Members of Parliament suspended in Lok Sabha represent nearly 15 crore people, and the 46 MPs suspended in Rajya Sabha represent close to 19 crore people. In other words, the voices of virtually 34 crore people (almost 25 per cent of the population) have been silenced.
Here is a list of the 146 suspended MPs, state-wise, and the number of voters they represent.
Assam (83 lakh voters)
Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, Abdul Khaleque, Gaurav Gogoi and Pradyut Bordoloi.
Bihar (3.7 crore voters)
Alok Kumar Suman, Chandeshwar Prasad, Dileshwar Kamait, Dinesh Chandra Yadav, Dulal Chandra Goswami, Faiyaz Ahmad, Giridhari Yadav, Kaushalendra Kumar, Mahabali Singh, Manoj Kumar Jha, Mohammad Jawed, Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan Singh), Ram Nath Thakur, Santosh Kumar, Sunil Kumar.
Chhattisgarh (1 crore voters)
Deepak Baij, Jyotsna Charandas Mahant, Phulo Devi Netam, Ranjeet Ranjan.
Goa (6 lakh voters)
Francisco Sardinha.
Gujarat (1.2 crore voters)
Amee Yajnik, Naranbhai J. Rathwa, Shaktisinh Gohil.
Himachal Pradesh (13 lakh voters)
Pratibha Singh.
Jammu and Kashmir (40 lakh voters)
Farooq Abdullah, Hasnain Masoodi and Mohammad Akbar Lone.
Jharkhand (50 lakh voters)
Geeta Kora and Mahua Maji.
Karnataka (1.95 crore voters)
D K Suresh, G C Chandrashekhar, Jairam Ramesh, L Hanumanthaiah and Syed Nasir Hussain.
Kerala (4.4 crore voters)
A A Rahim, A M Ariff, Adoor Prakash, Anto Antony, Benny Behanan, Binoy Viswam, Dean Kuriakose, E T Mohammed Basheer, Hibi Eden, Jebi Mather Hisham, John Brittas, Jose K Mani, K Muraleedharan, Kumbakudi Sudhakaran, M P Abdusaamad Samadani, N K Premachandran, P Sandosh Kumar, Rajmohan Unnithan, Ramya Haridas, Shashi Tharoor, Suresh Kokikkunil, T N Prathapan, Thomas Chazhikadan, V Sivadasan and V K Sreekandan.
Lakshadweep (55 thousand voters)
Faizal P P Mohammed.
Madhya Pradesh (47 lakh voters)
Nakul Nath and Rajmani Patel.
Maharashtra (3.8 crore voters)
Amol Ramsing Kolhe, Imran Pratapgarhi, Kumar Ketkar, Rajani Ashokrao Patil, Supriya Sadanand Sule and Vandana Chavan.
Rajasthan (2.2 crore voters)
K C Venugopal, Neeraj Dangi, Pramod Tiwari, Neeraj Dangi and Randeep Singh Surjewala.
Odisha (14.3 lakh voters)
Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka.
Puducherry (9.7 lakh voters)
V Vaithilingam.
Punjab (1.1 crore voters)
Amar Singh, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Jasbir Singh Gill, Manish Tewari, Mohammad Sadique, Sushil Kumar Rinku.
Tamil Nadu (6.5 crore voters)
A Ganeshamurthi, A Raja, B Manickam Tagore, C N Annadurai, Dhanush M Kumar, A Chellakumar, Dayanidhi Maran, DNV S Senthilkumar, K Jayakumar, Kanimozhi NVN Somu, M K Vishnu Prasad, T Sumathy (A) Thamizhachi Thangapandian, Tholkappiyan Thirumaavalavan, Veeraswamy Kalanidhi, Ganesan Selvam, K Subbarayan, Kani K Navas, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Karti P Chidambaram, M Mohamed Abdulla, M Shanmugam NR Elango, P Velusamy, P R Natarajan, R Girirajan, S Jagathrakshakan, S Jothimani, S Venkatesan, S S Palanimanickam, Sellaperumal Ramalingam, Su. Thirunavukkarasar, Thalikkottai Rajuthevar Baalu and Vijayakumar (Vijay Vasanth).
Uttar Pradesh (1.5 crore voters)
Dimple Yadav, Javed Ali Khan, Kunwar Danish Ali, Ram Gopal Yadav, S T Hasan.
West Bengal (5.7 crore voters)
Abir Ranjan Biswas, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Aparupa Poddar, Asit Kumar Mal, Derek O’Brien, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Kalyan Banerjee, Khalilur Rahaman, Mala Roy, Mausam Noor, Mohammed Nadimul Haque, Prakash Chik Baraik, Prasun Banerjee, Pratima Mondal, Sajda Ahmed, Samirul Islam, Santanu Sen, Satabdi Roy Banerjee, Sougata Ray, Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Sunil Kumar Mondal.
[This article was also published in The Indian Express | Thursday, December 21, 2023]