NEW DELHI: The Delhi Assembly on Tuesday witnessed unruly scenes when Nationalist Congress Party MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri supported by Congress MLAs strongly objected to the language used by BJP chief whip Sahib Singh Chauhan while speaking on the no-confidence motion, leading to a logjam and subsequent adjournment of the House for almost one hour.

The trouble started when Mr. Chauhan, speaking in favour of the motion, termed the debate by Mr. Bidhuri as Congress-oriented aimed at favouring the ruling party. He made certain personal remarks against the member and his political leanings, which offended not only Mr. Bidhuri but also the Congress members who got up in protest. Mr. Bidhuri termed the remarks unfortunate and said the language used by the BJP member was against the dignity of the House.

`Limits crossed'

Mr. Bidhuri said Mr. Chauhan had been making such remarks in the past also but he had ignored them but this time round he had crossed the limits of decency and his conduct was condemnable.

A furious Mr. Bidhuri said he would not take the remarks lying down. "The member should either withdraw the remarks or I would be forced to take extreme action." This view was supported by Bhisham Sharma, Ram Babu Sharma, Mahabal Mishra and Mateen Ahmed of the Congress and Shoaib Iqbal of Janata Dal (S). Mr. Bhisham Sharma said the remarks by Mr. Chauhan were most unfortunate and he should apologise. Mr. Bidhuri challenged Mr. Chauhan to make these accusations outside the House and then have the courage to face the consequences.

This provoked the Leader of the Opposition, Jagdish Mukhi, who demanded action against Mr. Bidhuri. The Speaker, Chaudhary Prem Singh, ruled that all remarks made by Mr. Chauhan and Mr. Bidhuri against each other be expunged. But this failed to satisfy the members from both the sides who were on their feet protesting leaving the Speaker with no option but to adjourn the House.

After this, the Speaker held talks with the BJP leaders as well as Mr.Bidhuri and asked them to bury the hatchet. Mr. Bidhuri refused to apologise, leading to the adjournment being stretched beyond the normal tea break.

After the House re-assembled, Mr. Prem Singh asked Mr. Bidhuri to let bygones be bygones. However, Mr. Bidhuri said he would not apologise to the BJP or its members but said if the entire episode had hurt the Speaker or the House he was sorry.

This led to resumption of the debate, which nevertheless remained unfinished till the House adjourned for the day.

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