Cong to sit out after House free-for-all

The opposition Congress was on Tuesday suspended for the rest of the Budget session of the Assembly after its MLAs threw mikes, shouted slog...

The opposition Congress was on Tuesday suspended for the rest of the Budget session of the Assembly after its MLAs threw mikes, shouted slogans, and disrupted proceedings, protesting the suspension of Leader of the Opposition Arjun Modhvadia for a day.

However, late in the night, the BJP and the Congress reached a compromise. The BJP agreed to get the suspension revoked, allowing Congress to participate in the proceedings for the remaining three days. The agreement was struck at a meeting of MLAs from both parties at Speaker Mangaldas Patel’s Gandhinagar residence. Both sides agreed to forget what had happened in the House in the day and to cooperate with each other for the rest of the session.

BJP chief whip Jitendra Sukhadia told The Indian Express that the issue was amicably settled. He said on Wednesday, State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ashok Bhatt would move a proposal in the House seeking revocation of the suspension of Opposition members, including CLP leader Arjun Modhvadia. He said both parties had accepted the Speaker’s advice that decorum should be maintained in the House.

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Modhvadia maintained he had done nothing to lower the dignity of the House, but said the opposition would express regret for showing disrespect to State Education Minister Anandiben Patel. The minister was reading out a reply during Question Hour when Modhvadia interrupted and shouted that, ‘‘Tamey shun dhandha karya chaey? (Don’t we know what you have been doing?)’’

BJP MLAs opposed these remarks and Speaker Mangaldas Patel suspended Modhvadia for the day when he refused to withdraw the remarks he made. Congress MLAs were on their feet, protesting the action against Modhvadia as marshals entered the House to take him away. Congress MLA Paresh Vasava lunged for the minister and flung the papers from her desk. He was, however, intercepted by marshals who took him out of the House. Some Congress MLAs threw mikes at the Treasury benches, and clashed with the marshals who tried to rein them in.

The Speaker then adjourned the house at 3.25 pm for half an hour. During the adjournment, Opposition members went to the Speaker’s chamber to represent their case to him, but finding his door closed, they smashed the windowpanes.

When the House reassembled after half an hour , Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ashok Bhatt moved a proposal requesting the chair to name the trouble-makers and suspend all the opposition members present. Senior BJP member Mahendra Mashru, who was in the chair, put the proposal to vote, which was adopted by majority.