NEW DELHI: A committee chaired by Speaker Om Birla will look into incidents in Lok Sabha between March 2 and 5, the House was informed on Friday after the opposition demanded revocation of suspension of the seven Congress MPs.

While Birla kept away from Lok Sabha for the third consecutive day, the announcement was made by BJP MP Kirit Premjibhai Solanki, who presided over the proceedings.

“The Speaker has formed a committee that will inquire about the incidents which happened in the House between March 2 and March 5 and submit its report to Parliament,” Solanki said. “The Speaker will head this committee and it will have one member each from all political parties,” he added.

Sources said the House agreed to debate the suspension of the Congress MPs after a meeting was held in Birla’s chamber in which defence minister Rajnath Singh and Congress’s leader in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury were present. Sources said Birla had asked Congress’s Rahul Gandhi also to be present in the meeting.

It was learnt that while Chowdhury argued that his party MPs were suspended without giving them a chance to explain, Birla insisted on framing a ‘code of conduct’ to run the House smoothly.

Soon after the House reassembled at 12 noon after an adjournment, Chowdhury raised the suspension and demanded that it be revoked. “Seven of our MPs were suspended for the entire budget session yesterday. We don't know on what basis this was done. We only want a discussion on the issue of Delhi violence,” he said.

Sudip Bandyopadhyay (TMC), Dayanidhi Maran (DMK) and Supriya Sule (NCP) said the suspension should be recalled as the “punishment” was “disproportionate”. BJP’s Nishikant Dubey and JD(U)’s Rajiv Ranjan Singh justified the decision.

