Prime Minister's ICT Affairs Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy has criticised the expulsion of two black minority US state lawmakers, sparing a white one, in Tennessee over their gun control protests.
In a Facebook post, he also questioned the fairness of democracy in the United States as the white lawmaker, Republican Gloria Johnson, who participated in the demonstration did not face expulsion.
The two black lawmakers, Democrat Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were expelled from Tennessee statehouse on Thursday.
“US State legislature votes to expel two minority lawmakers while keeping a third who was white. This is the state of democracy in the US,” Joy wrote in his verified Facebook status soon after the expulsion.
Jones, 27, and Pearson, 28, the two youngest members of the legislature, used a megaphone and banged the House lectern as they made rousing speeches and addressed the protesters who crowded around the chamber's public viewing platform, according to WION news.
Jones later vowed he would seek re-election for his Nashville seat, calling his removal an attack on democracy.
US gun violence has stoked widespread protests across the United States in recent days, after as many as 9,800 people reportedly died due to gun violence in just the first three months of 2023, a figure that also includes self-inflicted deaths by suicide apart from regular acts of mass gun violence.
People in the United States own more guns than anywhere else in the world. According to a 2018 report by Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, US gun owners own 393.3 million weapons, translating into 120.5 firearms per 100 residents.
