After lifting suspension, MPs insist protest was for opposition rights, question Speaker

New Delhi: After revoking their suspension on Tuesday, Congress lawmakers maintained that their “dignified” protest was to demand that Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and other opposition members be given the right to speak in Parliament.Congress MP Manikam Tagore said: “Parliamentary traditions and rules must apply equally to all and not selectively to opposition members. Lakshman Rekha must include upholding the dignity of opposition leaders.”He said that it was only after the LoP was not allowed to speak on the motion to thank the President that the opposition MPs protested, and then representatives of the 240 opposition MPs were “silenced”.Another suspended MP, Amarinder Raja Warring, said the suspension was too long. “We feel there is discrimination in the House. There is no equality. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has a chance if he wants to. Nishikant, Anurag Thakur, Ravneet Bittu have a free mandate but the LoP does not have a free mandate. The Speaker sometimes discriminates and he takes biased decisions and we feel bad,” he said.After being lifted from suspension on Tuesday afternoon, MPs Rabindranath Tagore, Waring, Shibhi Eden, Prashant Padore, Kiran Reddy, Gurjit Ojira, Deen Kuriakos paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi inside the Parliament complex.