Piyush Goyal said opposition members willfully disrupted parliamentary proceedings (File)
The BJP on Monday accused the Congress and its allies of "insulting" the Lok Sabha speaker and the Rajya Sabha chairperson and "embarrassing" the country with their conduct, with 92 opposition members suspended from both Houses in the past five days.
Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal said that opposition members brought placards and willfully disrupted parliamentary proceedings despite the decision taken earlier that placards would not be allowed in the Houses.
They refused to heed repeated requests of the speaker and the chairperson and insulted them, he said, and accused INDIA bloc parties of disrespecting Parliament.
"It was clearly their preplanned strategy to not allow Parliament to run smoothly," he said, noting that a bill to provide reservation to women in Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry was taken up for consideration and passage in the Rajya Sabha but protesting opposition members did not allow a discussion.
"The Congress and its allies are intrinsically against the interests of women and backward classes. Whenever the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes any step to empower backward classes and women, they are pained because the Congress and the Left are always against their empowerment," Mr Goyal said.
Thirty-three opposition members, including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, T R Baalu and Sougata Ray, were suspended from the Lok Sabha for displaying placards and raising slogans over the Parliament security breach issue.
While 30 members -- 10 from DMK, nine from TMC, eight from Congress and one each from IUML, JD(U) and RSP -- were suspended for the remainder of the Winter session, three other Congress members were suspended pending a report of the Privileges Committee.
The opposition members disrupted the House proceedings demanding a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah on the issue.
Last week, 13 opposition members were suspended from the Lok Sabha and one was suspended from the Rajya Sabha for disrupting proceedings.
The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day soon after the suspension of 33 members was announced. As many as 45 opposition MPs were suspended from the Rajya Sabha.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)