Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien has been suspended from the Rajya Sabha for the rest of this session for  “unruly behaviour”, as Parliament resumed amid tension over the major security breach in the Lok Sabha last afternoon.

Mr O’Brien had demanded a discussion on the incident, in which two men jumped from the visitors’ gallery into the Lok Sabha and burst yellow smoke canisters. An apoplectic Rajya Sabha Chair Jagdeep Dhankhar named the Bengal politician and directed he leave the House immediately. 

“Derek O’Brien is named to leave the House immediately… Derek O’Brien says he will defy the Chair… Derek O’Brien says he will not respect the rules. This is a serious misconduct. This is a shameful incident,” Mr Dhankhar said, ejecting the Trinamool leader for “disorderly conduct”.

Despite the warning, Mr O’Brien and other opposition MPs continued to protest, and demanded that Union Home Minister Amit Shah be present in the House to answer for yesterday’s incident.

The Rajya Sabha was then adjourned, but before that Mr Dhankhar re-assured MPs a high-level investigation had been opened into the security breach, and that a police case had been filed. 

Earlier today Prime Minister Narendra Modi met senior ministers to discuss the breach; the PM was not in Parliament yesterday as he was attending swearing-in ceremonies of the ruling BJP’s two new chief ministers – Mohan Yadav in Madhya Pradesh and Vishnu Deo Sai in Chhattisgarh.

At least six people were involved in the smoke scare inside and outside Parliament yesterday; two men popped smoke canisters in the Lok Sabha and a man and a woman did so outside. All four have been arrested, as have a husband and wife who sheltered them at their Gurgaon home.

READ | Engineer, Army Aspirant, Driver: Who Are Parliament Breach Accused

The four inside have been identified as Sagar Sharma, D Manoranjan, Neelam Devi, and Amol Shinde, while the Gurgaon man has been name as Vicky Sharma. A sixth man is on the run. 

The four who deployed smoke canisters have been charged under the stringent anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, besides sections in the Indian Penal Code. The six currently in custody, including the wife of Vicky Sharma, are being interrogated by Delhi Police’s anti-terror cell.

READ | Objective Behind Parliament Security Breach? What Intruders Told Cops

During questioning, they told police the breach was meant to draw the government’s attention to various issues, such as the recent ethnic violence in Manipur and unemployment levels in India.

Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan were given visitors’ passes after a request from the BJP’s Mysuru MP, Prathap Simha, who told Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla he had done so after the former’s father approached him. The father told Mr Simha his son wanted to experience the new Parliament.

READ | Parliament Breach Case: BJP MP Explains Why His Office Issued Passes

The opposition has demanded that Mr Simha also be investigated. 

Meanwhile, Parliament has tightened security protocols, including temporarily banning visitors and restricting non-essential personnel, inlcuding media. Seven Lok Sabha staff have been suspended. 

Yesterday’s scare came on the 22nd anniversary of the terror strike on the old Parliament building, in which two Pakistan-based groups attacked and killed nine people, including eight security staff.

BJP MP Pratap Simha, under scrutiny for providing Parliament passes to the two accused responsible for causing chaos in the Lok Sabha with gas canisters, met Speaker Om Birla and offered an explanation, sources said. Briefing the speaker, the Mysore MP said that the father of one of the accused approached him for a visitor’s pass.

The father reportedly told Mr Simha that his son wanted to tour the new Parliament building. Sources said that the accused, Sagar Sharma, remained in constant communication with Mr Simha’s personal assistant (PA) and office regarding the visitor’s pass.

The Lok Sabha MP conveyed to the Lok Sabha Speaker that he possessed no additional information beyond what he had already stated.

Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D jumped from the visitor’s gallery to the House yesterday. They managed to release yellow smoke from aerosol canisters before they were caught by some of the parliamentarians.

While those two were causing panic inside the Lok Sabha, two other protesters – a man and a woman – were caught releasing coloured smoke on a road outside the Parliament.

During questioning, the four accused told cops that they were concerned about issues like unemployment and Manipur violence. They said that they wanted to catch the attention of the parliamentarians and start a debate on the issues.

Expressing shock at the breach, several Members of Parliament said visitors have to clear five levels of security before entering the complex and that signatures from the office of an MP are needed for a pass to the visitors’ gallery. The breach took place 22 years after the attack on Parliament in 2001.

Opposition has trained their guns on Mr Simha and is claiming that a thorough security check wasn’t done by the MP before issuing the passes.

Pratap Simha won from the Mysore constituency with 43.46% of votes in 2014 and increased his vote share to 52.27% in the 2019 elections. The 42-year-old is a former journalist and is well-known for a series of columns. He also wrote a biography of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2007.

The son of a farmer, the MP had earlier said that he idolises PM Modi.

The Allahabad High Court has greenlit a survey of the Shahi Idgah Mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura. On Monday the court will decide the constitution of the panel to carry out the survey.