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India's Congress party protests against suspension of 25 MPs

Xinhua, August 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

India's main opposition Congress party's lawmakers Tuesday staged a massive protest on the premises of the parliament against the suspension of 25 of its MPs.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh led the protest of parliamentarians, wearing black badges.

"Democratic voices have been muzzled," Rahul Gandhi told the media, reacting to the suspensions of 25 of its parliamentarians.

Parliamentary speaker Sumitra Mahajan Monday suspended 25 Congress lawmakers for five days for "persistently, wilfully obstructing" the Lower House (Lok Sabha).

"It is a dark day for democracy," Sonia Gandhi said, after the suspensions.

The Congress, which has 44 members in Lok Sabha, have been disrupting the parliament everyday since the monsoon session began.

The party has been demanding the resignations of three top leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, caught in scandals.

Swaraj has been accused of helping the country's former cricket boss Lalit Modi, now a fugitive in London for alleged money laundering, secure travel papers in Britain.

Swaraj has denied the allegations. Endi