Congress protests against suspension of its MPs

New Delhi, Aug 5  The Congress, led by its top leaders, protested against the suspension of 25 of its Lok Sabha MPs for the second day on Wednesday even as six other political parties joined in support.

Led by party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi, party leaders, including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, staged the protest near the Mahatma Gandhi's statue in parliament complex.

While some leaders wore black bands on their arms, other held black flags.

Janata Dal-United leaders Sharad Yadav and K.C. Tyagi, Samajwadi Party's (SP) Dharmendra Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) Jaya Prakash Narayan Yadav, Communist Party of India-Marxist's P. Karunakaran, Communist Party of India's D. Raja and Indian Union Muslim League leader E. Ahamed were among those who participated in the protest.

On Monday, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan suspended the Congress parliamentarians for five days for "wilfully obstructing the business of the house" and not adhering to her repeated requests to observe the rules in the house.

Sonia Gandhi raised slogans along with others against the NDA government. "End dictatorship", "Prime Minister break silence" "Where have the "Achhe din" gone", "Sushma Swaraj resign" were some of the slogans raised by leaders.

"We will continue the agitation tomorrow (Thursday)", the Congress chief told the media.

She said she was not aware of any proposal from the government to end the logjam or for revocation of the suspension of the 25 Congress MPs.

Rahul Gandhi said: "We have not liked the decision of the Lok Sabha speaker, but we respect her position".

The party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindia, said the suspended MPs will not submit an apology to the speaker.

Meanwhile, when the Lok Sabha assembled on Wednesday morning, opposition parties like the SP, RJD and Nationalist Congress Party began shouting slogans against the government and wanted to raise certain issues.

Besides the Congress and Trinamool Congress, members of the Left parties and Muslim League members were also not present in the house.

When Mahajan declined to entertain their requests, members of all the three parties staged a walkout.