Centre "Arrogant About Brute Majority": Shashi Tharoor On MP Suspension

Shashi Tharoor said the "government is genuinely arrogant about its brute majority and seems contemptuous about the need to accommodate opposition voices"

Congress's Shashi Tharoor today accused the government of suppressing opposition voices, "arrogant about its brute majority" after four of his party colleagues got suspended by Speaker Om Birla. Manickam Tagore, Jothimani, Ramya Haridas and TN Prathapan.were holding placards in parliament even after being warned against such acts at the all-party meeting,  Mr Birla had said. All four have been suspended for the rest of the Monsoon Session, which continues till August 12.

Pointing out that every major democracy has a day a week when the Opposition sets the agenda, Mr Tharoor said in the Indian system, it depends on the "government's good grace and willingness to take it on the chin".

But in this case, the "government is genuinely arrogant about its brute majority and seems contemptuous about the need to accommodate opposition voices," he said. "The suspension of MPs is disgraceful, marks a catastrophic breakdown of relations between the government and the opposition," he added.

In this context, Mr Tharoor said the tradition of parliamentary disruptions have been established over the last three or four decades when the BJP was in the opposition. Former Speakers Somnath Chatterjee and Meira Kumar had struggled to find a way around this, he said.