BHOPAL: There was a virtual free-for-all in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Thursday as several agitated ruling party MLAs were seen shouting slogans and pushing away some Opposition MLAs. It all happened when Samajwadi Party MLA Sunilam chose to ignore the Speaker's ruling and began proceeding towards Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan carrying a sample of crops said to have been damaged by hailstorm.

Question hour ended with most Opposition members on their feet raising slogans and demanding a discussion on hail-hit farmers and large-scale damage to crops. The Speaker, Ishwardas Rohani, took the stand that a discussion on this issue would be allowed on Friday. When Dr. Sunilam, who was earlier sitting on a protest dharna in the well, crossed over to the other side and began heading towards the Chief Minister, many ruling BJP MLAs, including two Ministers, Jayant Malaiya and Himmat Kothari, rushed towards him and some of them even began pushing him back. Many Opposition MLAs simultaneously joined the scuffle. Prominent among them were the Congress MLAs, Ramniwas Rawat and Satyadev Katare. At this juncture, even the Chief Minister came to the well to separate the agitated MLAs. The House was briefly adjourned.

When the members re-assembled, PWD Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya moved a resolution for suspension of Dr. Sunilam, Mr. Katare and Mr. Rawat for the remainder of the session. This resolution was passed by a voice vote and the House was adjourned till 2-30 p.m. Leaving the House, the Opposition members, led by Jamuna Devi sat on a protest demonstration in front of the Speaker's chamber. They kept shouting slogans against the Government as well as the Speaker.

Later the agitated Opposition MLAs were locked in a closed-door discussion with the Speaker in his chamber and when the House met for the post-lunch session, the Chief Minister took the initiative and said: "Vidhan Sabha is a temple of democracy." He said the Assembly functions under rules and all members, whether they belong to the ruling side or the Opposition, raise issues concerning the people. "What happened today was unfortunate", he said, adding that mistakes were committed on both sides. He also moved a resolution to revoke the decision to suspend the three MLAs. The Opposition leader also expressed regrets on behalf of her party and said the whole incident had come as a blot on the State Assembly's glorious tradition. It was at this stage that the resolution moved by Mr. Chauhan to revoke the MLAs' suspension was put to voice vote by the Speaker and unanimously passed.

When the House was adjourned for the second time in the afternoon, the Chief Minister addressed newspersons in the Assembly's Cabinet room and said he had always made effort to sit together with the Opposition to resolve issues.

He said that immediately after the crops were hit by thunderstorm and hail three days ago, he had asked the Chief Secretary to assess the damage and submit a report within seven days.

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