Indian Parliament suspends 78 more opposition lawmakers

NEW DELHI, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- As many as 78 federal lawmakers from different opposition political parties were suspended on Monday for the remaining part of the ongoing winter session for "repeatedly disrupting parliamentary proceedings."

The suspension, which involved 33 lawmakers from the Indian Parliament's lower house Lok Sabha and 45 from upper House Rajya Sabha, is described as the biggest suspension of lawmakers in India's parliamentary history.

Last week, 14 lawmakers, including 13 from the Lok Sabha and one from the Rajya Sabha, were suspended over their "unruly conduct" during the House proceedings.

Last week the lawmakers were suspended after they repeatedly forced adjournments while raising the issue of a security breach inside the parliament on Dec. 13 when two youths had jumped into the Lok Sabha from the Visitors' Gallery and set off smoke canisters while raising slogans against the federal government.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated on Sunday that the security breach incident was "very serious."

The opposition lawmakers suspended on Monday were demanding the revocation of the suspension of lawmakers and a statement from federal Home (Internal Security) Minister Amit Shah over last week's parliament security breach incident.

Following the suspension, Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day.