India: Sonia Gandhi to hold meeting with Congress MPs over suspension of Adhir Ranjan from Lok Sabha

Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi will be holding a meeting with the party's Lok Sabha members on Friday (August 11) to discuss Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's suspension from the lower house for “repeated misconduct”. The meeting was called at the CPP office at the Parliament at 10:30 am.

On Thursday (August 10), a resolution was moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi for the suspension of Chowdhury after the Congress leader's certain remarks on the prime minister amid the no-confidence motion debate led to outrage from the treasury benches. The resolution was passed using a voice vote.

Later, Chowdhury defended his remarks stating that he was not insulting the country's prime minister. "Modi ji is sitting 'nirav' on Manipur issue, which means sitting silent. 'Nirav' means to be silent. My intention was not to insult PM Modi," said the Congress leader in Lok Sabha.

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"PM Modi did not feel that he was insulted, his darbaris (courtiers) felt so and brought this proposal against me. I came to know that (the matter) has been referred to the privileges committee and I have been suspended till then," he added.

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Congress responds to Chowdhury'ssuspension

Congress MP Manish Tewari said that the suspension was “unfortunate” and an “utter violation of Article 105 (1) of the Constitution of India”.

“It has profound implications for democracy & freedom speech in Parliament & the legislatures,” he said while writing on X.

“It is in utter violation of Article 105 (1) of the Constitution of India that states Subject to the provisions of this constitution and the rules and standing orders regulating the procedure of Parliament, there shall be freedom of speech in Parliament,” he added.

“This is a fit case for to challenge the suspension in an appropriate Court of Law,” Tewari stated.

Meanwhile, Congress whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore stated, "First time for speaking against Modi, largest opposition (party) leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury suspended. Unbelievable. Undemocratic. Condemn the autocracy."

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Speaking in the House, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Joshi stated, “It has become habitual for him (Adhir) and it has become most unfortunate. He is the leader of the Congress party, which is the largest party in the opposition in this House. Despite repeated warnings, he has not improved himself.”

"Always in his debate he makes these baseless charges, he tries to lower the dignity of the government. There are no facts in his arguments and he never apologises. Today also, we demanded that he apologise. He did the same thing when the home minister was speaking," Joshi added.

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