Parliament Security Breach; Govt. Suspends 141 Opposition MPs

On 13 Dec, on the 22^nd anniversary of the Parliament attack 2001, there was a major security breach during Zero Hour, a period during which Members of Parliament (MPs) can raise issues of urgent public importance. Two men jumped from the visitors' gallery and ran towards the Speaker in the Lok Sabha. Both were carrying canisters emitting non-lethal yellow smoke and shouting ‘down with dictatorship.’ Simultaneously, a man and a woman outside the Parliament also released non-poisonous gas. All were apprehended. The assailants are: Sagar Sharma, D Manoranjan, Amol Shinde and Neelam Azad. They acquired a Visitor's Pass from Mysore BJP MP Pratap Simha. Amritsar INC MP, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, intercepted the smoke bomb from Sharma. He also spoke about the security vulnerabilities at the new Parliament and wondered what if the intent of the intruders was not to surprise but to kill. SAD’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal wondered what would have happened if the intruders were not Hindu, but Muslim or Sikh. The media would have gone into a frenzy, rather than suppressing the incident as they are doing now. A few days back Sikhs for Justice’s Gurpatwant Singh Pannun issued a threat to attack the Parliament and now he has offered $12,000 to cover the assailants’ legal fees – an attempt to appropriate the intrusion. The Opposition has been demanding a statement by the PM or Home Minister. Instead of making a statement which would reveal that the post of Joint Secretary (Security) has been lying vacant since earlier this year, the staff on the first gate is operating at 15% and the second gate at 40% required strength, the government has until now suspended 141 Opposition MPs.