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Wednesday, Mar 16, 2005

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National

Gujarat Opposition members suspended

By Our Special Correspondent

GANDHINAGAR, MARCH 15. The entire Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly was suspended for the remaining period of the budget session following unruly scenes inside and outside the Assembly Hall here today.

The provocation was suspension for the day of the Opposition Leader, Arjun Mothvadia, after he refused to apologise for some "uncharitable" remarks he allegedly made against the Education Minister, Anandiben Patel, during question hour.

As the agitated ruling party members demanded the Opposition Leader to withdraw his words and apologise to the Minister for the remarks, Mr. Mothvadia stood his ground.

Quoting Assembly rules he said that he had not used any unparliamentary word and there was no question of his apology.

An uproar followed with the ruling party members insisting on his apology and the Opposition supporting their leader.

Physically removed

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ashok Bhatt, moved a motion for suspending Mr. Mothvadia. The motion was carried by voice vote but Mr. Mothvadia refused to leave the House. The Speaker called the marshals and Mr. Mothvadia had to be physically lifted out of the House.

The Opposition members immediately raised strong protests and two young Congress members, Paresh Dhanani and Manish Jiletwala, rushed menacingly towards the treasury benches forcing the Assembly guards to enter the House and create a wall between the ruling and Opposition benches to protect the members.

The angry Opposition members also damaged some mikes and threw pincushions and papers at the ruling benches and the Speaker's table. As the situation threatened to get out of the control, the Speaker adjourned the House for half-an-hour.

Outside the House some agitated Congress members broke glasspanes and damaged paintings outside the Speaker's chamber before they sat on a dharna at the entrance of the Assembly Hall shouting anti-BJP slogans.

Pandemonium broke out again on resumption of the House after 30 minutes resulting in another motion for the suspension of the entire Opposition for the remaining period of the current session and was adopted by the House by a voice vote. (The budget session of the Assembly is due to end on Friday.)

MLAs meet Governor

Later, the Congress MLAs led by Mr. Mothvadia called on the Governor, Nawal Kishore Sharma, and submitted a memorandum requesting his intervention in the "undemocratic'' actions against the Opposition by the treasury benches.

The memorandum requested the Governor to go through the records of the entire proceedings of the House to find out if the behaviour of the Congress members was unparliamentary or the "provocative decisions'' of the treasury benches was undemocratic.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr. Bhatt, demanded Mr. Mothvadia's resignation for "flagrant violation'' of the democratic principles.

Mr. Mothvadia by refusing to obey the orders of the Speaker to withdraw his remarks had grossly violated the parliamentary system of democracy.

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