The Opposition staged a walk out from the State Assembly after Speaker Rahul Narwekar refused to allow an immediate discussion on the recent custodial death of Somnath Surevanshi at Parbhani and the alleged murder of sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh and slammed the Devendra Fadnavis government for human rights violations and police brutality.
On the second day of the ongoing winter session of State Legislature in Nagpur, several opposition leaders Nana Patole, Vijay Wadettiwar, Nitin Raut (all from Congress) and Sandeep Kshirsagar (Sharad Pawar-led NCP) expressed serious concern over the manner in which a Dalit youth died in police custody and the killing of a sarpanch in Beed district and demanded an immediate discussion on the issue.
Soon after the proceedings began in the House, Nana Patole raised the twin issues of custodial death of a Dalit youth in Parbhani and the killing of a sarpanch in Beed district, and asked the Speaker to suspend all the other work and hold discussion on the issue,
Opposition Members like Wadettiwar, Nitin Raut and Sandeep Kshirsagar joined Patole in his clamour for immediate discussion on the twin issues.
However, the Speaker declined to allow a discussion on the issue on Tuesday on the ground that it had already been decided to have a discussion under rule 101 on Wednesday considering the seriousness of the incident.
However, the Opposition members were not happy with the Speaker’s refused to allow immediate discussion on the issue. They walked out from the House in protest.
The gravity of the issue could be gauged from the fact even Namita Mundada, a ruling BJP MLA from Kej in Beed district also shared the Opposition’s concern over the murder of a sarpanch from her Assembly constituency, contending that the incident had caused considerable anger among the people of the village where the murder had taken place in broad day-light. She urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to take immediate action for the arrest of the accused behind the murder.
After walking out from the Assembly, the Opposition members staged a protest on the State Legislature premises.
Talking to media persons outside the House, Wadettiwar came down heavily on the Speaker for trying to silence the Opposition in the House. “Despite our repeated pleas for a discussion on the issue, the Speaker refused to let us speak. This is a clear-cut attempt to stifle the voice of dissent from the Opposition and help the government to forsake accountability for its failures,” he said.
Condemning the custodial death in Parbhani and killing of a sarpanch in Beed district, Raut said: “No one who has true faith in the Constitution can allow such police brutality and murder of a sarpanch. During Parbhani disturbances, innocent citizens, including children, were detained, beaten, and one of the arrested persons died in police custody. This exposes the government’s failure to protect citizens”
