Congress holds protest against the suspension of party MPs

Several members of state Congress today held a protest here against the five-day suspension of 25 party MPs from Lok Sabha and termed the decision as "undemocratic". Congress workers, led by senior vice-president of the state unit Sham Lal Sharma and other leaders, took out a protest march from outside the party office. However, they were halted by the police as Section 144 has been imposed in Jammu.

"The decision to suspend congress MP by the Lok Sabha speaker is undemocratic and we strongly condemn the action. The ruling BJP is trying to muzzle the voice of the opposition", chief spokesman and MLC Ravinder Sharma said. He said a large number of Congress workers from different parts of Jammu region gathered at party office and held a protest against the Speaker's decision to suspend the party MPs.

"The demand for the resignation of Vasundhara Raje and Sushma Swaraj for their support to Lalit Modi is not only the demand of Congress but the entire country wants their resignations, and taking action against the Congress MPs has no justification", Sharma said. Sharma said that a similar protest march by the Congress workers was taken out in Kashmir, led by the party's state chief Ghulam Ahmed Mir and they presented a memorandum to the Governor N N Vohra, condemning the suspension of the MPs. "The protest in Srinagar was led by president of the Pradesh Congress Committee Ghulam Ahmed Mir and they presented a memorandum to Governor N N Vohra condemning the decision of the Lok Sabha speaker to suspend the Congress MPs," he said.

Meanwhile, reports of protests on the issue by Congress workers in various parts of Jammu region also poured in. "This is not how democracy works; everyone has the right to speak his mind. The Congress MPs were just raising the voice of the people of India and they were suspended in a very undemocratic way," Sharma claimed.