Indian Parliament suspends 78 lawmakers in winter session

On December 18, the Indian Parliament suspended the membership of 78 opposition lawmakers, including 33 Lok Sabha members and at least 45 Rajya Sabha members, for "repeatedly disrupting the winter session of Parliament" while trying to discuss the security breach in Parliament on December 13.

This is described as the largest suspension of an MP in the history of the Indian Parliament.

Previously, on December 14, 14 other lawmakers were also suspended for holding banners demanding that Home Minister Amit Shah make a statement about the security breach in Parliament.

During the House of Representatives session earlier this week, Speaker Om Birla said a high-level inquiry had been initiated into the security breach.

However, opposition MPs said Home Minister Amit Shah should have made an alternative statement and protested while Mr Birla spoke.

On the same day, in the Senate, leader Piyush Goyal proposed suspending 34 opposition lawmakers for disrupting the meeting process.

Eleven more lawmakers were then suspended from the Senate pending the Privileges Committee's report on them.

The move, which has drawn strong opposition from the opposition in Parliament, came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in an interview that the security breach in Parliament was sad and worrying, but stressed that the incident should not be a subject of "controversy or protest".