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Tuesday, Mar 18, 2008
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Pandemonium in Delhi Assembly

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

– PHOTO: ANU PUSHKARNA

FREE FOR ALL: The scene inside the Delhi Assembly on Monday following unruly protests by BJP members during the Lieutenant-Governor’s address.

NEW DELHI: The decorum of the Delhi Assembly touched a new low on Monday as ruling Congress and opposition BJP MLAs jostled with each other during the Lieutenant-Governor’s address on the opening day of the Budget session. But for intervention by some senior legislators, the situation could have taken an even uglier turn as some Congress MLAs tried to teach their BJP counterparts – who were constantly disrupting the L-G’s address -- a lesson.

From the moment the House assembled, all the BJP MLAs – donning posters with messages round their necks -- were up on their feet shouting slogans against the Delhi Government, accusing it of failure to provide water and power to the Capital’s citizens and stop sealing and demolitions in the city.

Matters went out of hand as Delhi Cantonment MLA Karan Singh Tanwar went up to the Speaker’s table and drank up water from his bottle and glass to protest against water shortage in the city.

Though Leader of the Opposition Jagdish Mukhi pleaded with him to return to his seat, Mr. Tanwar in gross defiance of the party leadership stayed put near the dais of L-G Tejendra Khanna. He even prompted the L-G with the empty glass and went to the extent of beating the Speaker’s hammer on the table.

To add to the chaos, two more BJP legislators -- Saket MLA Vijay Jolly and Tughlakabad MLA Ramesh Bidhuri – trooped into the well of the House shouting slogans against the water shortage and describing the new Master Plan for Delhi as a “Disaster Plan”. They then planted the posters they were wearing round their necks on the Speaker’s table.

The continuous din and this one-sided control of the well of the House seemed too much for the firebrand young Congress legislators. Senior party MLA Bhisham Sharma then decided to take the BJP legislators head on. He went up to the table and pulled off the posters Mr. Jolly and Mr. Bidhuri had planted there.

That led to an immediate scuffle between legislators from the two sides with Mr. Jolly being pushed back by Mr. Sharma and Mr. Mateen Ahmed of the Congress.

Following intervention at this point by Ramvir Singh Bidhuri of the Nationalist Congress Party and Mr. Mukesh Sharma of the Congress among others, there was a semblance of normalcy for a while.

But as the BJP legislators again put up the posters on the Speaker’s table, there was yet another scuffle between them and the Congress legislators led by Mr. Bhisham Sharma. This time even the elderly Puran Chand Yogi of the BJP ended up being pushed by Veer Singh Dhingan of the Congress.

Grossly outnumbered and not supported by their seniors including Prof. Mukhi and Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan, both of whom clearly appeared saddened by the turn of events, the BJP MLAs beat a retreat charging that they had been “assaulted”.

Following the incident, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit termed the BJP’s behaviour a “cheap political stunt” and added that no party had the right to misbehave and go to the extent of snatching the Speaker’s hammer. She said the BJP had no real issue to raise and that was why it had indulged in such behaviour.

“The water shortage is there, but we send tankers to all the affected areas,” said the Chief Minister reacting to the BJP’s major grievance.

The Speaker, Chaudhary Prem Singh, said “never before” had such an incident taken place in the 50-year history of Delhi Assembly. “I condemn it severely,” he said, adding that while the members had the right to speak and protest from their seats, they should not have disrupted the L-G’s address the way they did.

Since during his address the L-G chairs the House, the Speaker cannot summon the marshals to remove unruly members.

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