India: Suspended MPs continue 50-hour long protest in Parliament

Opposition MPs continued their 50-hour day-night sit-in protest on Friday morning, in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue inside Parliament premises, to mark their strong protest against their suspension, and the central government, which they claimed was not ready to hold discussions over key issues like price rise and increased GST rates.

A total of 27 MPs, including 23 Rajya Sabha MPs and 4 Lok Sabha MPs have been suspended for "unruly behaviour and disrupting proceedings" during the ongoing Monsoon session of Parliament. This is learnt to be the highest number of single-batch suspensions in the Upper House.

The 50-hour long sit-in is likely to end at around 5pm on Friday. The MPs who were suspended (for a week) had started the sit-in protest on Wednesday afternoon.

Among the MPs who spent the night outside were Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders Abir Ranjan Biswas and Derek O'Brien. TMC MPs Dola Sen, Sushmita Dev, Mausam Noor, AAP MPs Sushil Gupta and Sandeep Pathak were at the protest site till midnight.

On the second night under the sky, the MPs arranged mosquito nets for themselves. Photos from the protest site showed MPs inside the mosquito nets, with mosquito coils nearby.

"Non-stop day-night 50 hr dharna still on. About 6 hours to go. Revoke suspension of 27 MPs suspended for seeking a discussion on #PriceRise. Opposition fighting to save [the] sanctity of Parliament from dictators," tweeted TMC MP Derek O'Brien.

On July 27, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sanjay Singh had been suspended from the Rajya Sabha for the remainder of this week for "throwing paper on the Chair" during the proceedings. He was the 20th MP from the Upper House who was suspended for disrupting proceedings in this session.

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