Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Monday suspended 25 Members of Parliament for five consecutive sittings for disrupting the proceeding, forcing an agitated Congress president Sonia Gandhi to call it a Black Day in Indian democracy. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday said that the Narendra Modi government is implementing “Gujarat model” of democracy here.

The suspended members included B N Chandrappa, Santok, Singh Chaudhary, A H K Choudhury, Sushmita Dev, Ninog Ering, R Dhruvanarayana, Gaurav Gogoi, G Sukender Reddy, Deepender Hooda, S Kodikunnil, S P Muddahanumegowda, Abhijit Mukherjee, Mullappally Ramachandran, K H Munniyappa, B V Nayak, Vincent Pala, M K Raghavan, Ranjeet Ranjan, C L Ruala, T Sahu, Rajee Satav, Ravneet Singh K Suresh, K C Venugopal and T Meinya.

“Like in Gujarat the opposition members used to get suspended, similar thing is happening here. It is the Gujarat model which is being implemented,” party’s leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters.

While taking the tough action under Rule 374(A), Sumitra Mahajan said the members were being suspended for “persistently, wilfully obstructing the House”. She ruled that the ‘named’ members will not attend five sittings of the House. Congress has 44 members in all. Mahajan adjourned the House immediately after. However, a number of the Congress members staged a sit-in in the House.