The Hindu : House adjourned thrice over Sahib-Chauhan row

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 26, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

House adjourned thrice over Sahib-Chauhan row

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH. 25. Chaos descended on the Delhi Assembly today leading to three adjournments after the ruling and Opposition benches traded charges over the alleged incident of bashing up of Delhi's Education Minister's son by the supporters of the Union Labour Minister, Sahib Singh Verma, and his brother last week. It also led to the expulsion of one BJP member, Kulwant Rana, by the Speaker, Ajay Maken and a walkout by his colleague, Karan Singh Tanwar.

The ruling party members accused the Union Minister of passing derogatory comments against a particular community and demanded action against him including his arrest. The protests were triggered off when Surinder Kumar (Congress) raised the issue under Rule 280 of Special Mentions alleging that an incident had taken place last week when supporter of the Union Minister had beaten up the son of Mr. Chauhan. He alleged that not only did the goons of the Union Minister assault Mr. Chauhan, but he also made certain derogatory remarks against the Dalits and demanded action against the Union Minister. However, this was protested to by the BJP benches who were on their feet demanding that whatever Mr. Kumar had said should be expunged from the proceedings of the House. Their contention was that no discussion could take place on the issue about a person who was not the member of the House. However, this was overruled by the Speaker who said Mr. Kumar was well within his right to raise the issue and if the BJP members felt otherwise, they could wait for their turn to give a reply.

However, this did not satisfy the BJP including Kulwant Rana, Ramesh Bidhuri and others who were on their feet protesting. All efforts by Mr.Maken to bring the House to order failed following which he adjourned the house at 2-20 p.m. for 15 minutes. The situation did not change after the House reassembled and both the ruling party and Opposition benches continued to trade charges and shout slogans against the senior party leaders. This forced the Speaker to again adjourn the House for another 15 minutes. Again after the Houser reassembled, the BJP members and the Congress benches were on their feet shouting slogans. Mr. Rana rushed to the well of the House and refused to adhere to the directions of the Chair. The Speaker warned him that he was violating the basic spirit of the Assembly and would be named if he did not listen to the Chair. However, Mr. Rana was unrelenting and he refused to budge following which Mr. Maken expelled him from the House and the House was again adjourned. The Speaker then summoned the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, and Leader of the Opposition, Jagdish Mukhi, to his Chamber for sort out the issue.

After the House re-assembled, the Chief Minister made a suo moto statement where she termed the whole incident as very unfortunate. She informed the House that two FIRs had been lodged with the police and an inquiry was going on into the whole incident. Stating that it was a very serious matter, Ms. Dikshit said the law must take its own course and urged the members to wait for the final report. However, fissures in the BJP benches was quite evident when Mr. Tanwar accused his own party colleagues of not supporting Mr. Rana and walked out in protest against the treatment meted out to him.

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