Opposition protests against Lok Sabha Speaker's suspension of six Congress MPs

On Monday, Mahajan suspended six Congress MPs from Lok Sabha for five days over their misconduct.

The Speaker suspended the lawmakers after they tore official papers and threw them at the chair and disrupted proceedings when the House was  discussing the Bofors case and the recent incidents of mob lynching and cow vigilantism.

Mahajan said she was constrained to bar for five days the MPs - Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Adhir Rajan Chowdhury, Ranjeet Ranjan, Sushmita Dev and M K Raghavan- for "undermining the chair's dignity."

"The entire country should watch this...Show it, let them watch," the Speaker said.

Opposition members trooped into the well shouting slogans and flung pieces of paper toward the treasury benches and the House chair. In condemnation, the treasury benches shouted "shame, shame".

Congress president Sonia Gandhi was in the House.

Speaking about Tuesday's protest, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told NDTV: "It is a normal practice whenever you are not allowed to speak. Instead of allowing them to speak in the House, they were expelled for a week."

Azad said the BJP was even more worse as a opposition party when the UPA was in power. "BJP was even more worse in ten years (ten years of UPA regim)," he said, countering the allegations of misconduct in the House.

Trinamool Congress was also seen to share the stage of protest with the Congress.

Supporting the Congress' move, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee told NDTV: "Lynching is an important issue. Opposition wanted to discuss but they were not allowed. Instead they were suspended. It appears to be too harsh."

Image: Facebook page of Ghulam Nabi Azad (@GhulamNabiAzadINC)