The first day of the Delhi Assembly under the newly-formed BJP government witnessed a heated exchange between the treasury benches and opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members, leading to a brief adjournment of the House on Monday following Vijender Gupta’s election as speaker amid sloganeering from both the treasury and the Opposition benches, with AAP members accusing the BJP being “anti-Dalit and anti-Sikh”.
The Leader of Opposition Atishi accused new Government for removing BR Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh’s portraits from Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta’s office, a charge denied by the ruling BJP.
Tensions escalated when the Leader of Opposition Atishi, while congratulating Gupta, alleged that photos of BR Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh had been removed from the Chief Minister’s Office. Her remarks, made without permission, led to loud protests from BJP MLAs prompting Speaker Vijender Gupta to censure her for speaking out of turn.
As disruptions continued, the newly elected assembly speaker Vijendra Gupta accused the AAP of disrupting the house with pre-planned intentions and adjourned the house for 15 minutes. The Speaker said it was a courtesy address and You (Opposition) should not have made it a political platform.” The Opposition does not want the House to run smoothly. AAP has come with the intention of disrupting the House. Maintain the dignity of the House,” said Gupta.
Ruckus witnessed both inside and outside when Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Delhi Assembly Atishi alleged that the BJP removed the portraits from the Chief Minister’s Office in the Assembly-portraits that had been put up under the AAP government. As the Assembly session began, AAP MLAs, led by the LoP, in a mark of protest inside the House, raised slogans and demanded the immediate reinstatement of the portraits.
The BJP accused the opposition party of trying to divert people’s attention from the CAG reports that will be tabled in the Assembly to expose “corruption” by AAP when it was in power. The Delhi BJP shared photos of the chief minister’s office on social media and said, “The portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh the President and the prime minister are displayed in the offices of Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and other ministers.” Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva also clarified that that the portraits of the revered Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh, the President of India, and the Prime Minister of India continue to be displayed in the offices of the Chief Minister and all ministers of Delhi - something that anyone can easily verify.
Earlier from Sanskrit to English and Maithili to Punjabi, the first session of the newly constituted eighth Delhi Legislative Assembly began on Monday with MLAs of the ruling BJP and opposition AAP demonstrating the linguistic diversity of the legislature by taking their oaths in six languages including - Hindi, English, Sanskrit, Urdu, Maithili and Punjabi.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, along with Cabinet ministers, and other Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs), took oath in the House, in the presence of Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva and pro-tem Speaker Arvinder Singh Lovely, as the first session of the Assembly began here.
Gupta arrived at the Delhi Assembly with confidence, flashing a victory sign, was the first to take the oath, followed by her six Cabinet ministers. With her appointment, Rekha Gupta has become the fourth woman Chief Minister of Delhi, following Sheila Dikshit, Sushma Swaraj, and Atishi. She is also the fourth BJP leader to assume the role, succeeding Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma, and Sushma Swaraj.
Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa took his oath in Punjabi, while Law and Justice Minister Kapil Mishra opted for Sanskrit. The session also marked the BJP’s return to power after 26 years and its shift to the right side of the Speaker’s chair.
BJP MLA Arvinder Singh Lovely was sworn in as the pro-tem Speaker of the eighth Assembly and administered the oath by Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena at the Raj Niwas before the session began. As the senior-most legislator, Lovely oversaw the swearing-in of all newly elected MLAs.
Several other MLAs took oaths in different languages. Karnail Singh took oath in Punjabi, while Pradyumn Rajput and Neelam Pahalwan chose Sanskrit. BJP’s Tarvinder Marwah chanted religious slogans after reading the printed text, to which the Speaker objected, reminding him that it was not a Gurudwara. Amanatullah Khan (Urdu), Chandan Chaudhary (Maithili), Ajay Dutt (English), and Gajendra Yadav (Sanskrit) also took their oaths, with the Speaker consistently instructing members to follow the official oath format.
Other MLAs who took their oaths in Sanskrit included Sanjay Goel, Jitendra Mahajan, Ajay Mahawar, and BJP’s Karnail Singh, while Chaudhary Zubair and Amanatullah Khan chose Urdu.
Soon after the election of Speaker Vijendra Gupta, AAP leader Atishi accused the ruling BJP of being “anti-Dalit and anti-Sikh”. “It is unfortunate the Delhi Assembly is being led by a party that is anti-Dalit and anti-Sikh. The BJP has removed photographs of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh from the chief minister’s office, showing its anti-Dalit stance,” she said.
Later, in a post in Hindi on X, she said, “The BJP has shown its true anti-Dalit and anti-Sikh face. Photographs of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar and Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh have been removed from the chief minister’s office in the Delhi Legislative Assembly.” AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal said the move hurt millions of followers of Ambedkar. “The new BJP government of Delhi removed Babasaheb’s photograph and put up a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is not right. This has hurt millions of followers of Babasaheb,” he said in a post on X. “I have a request to the BJP. You can put up the prime minister’s photograph but do not remove that of Babasaheb. Let it remain,” he added.
Rejecting the charges, Cabinet Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said “This is being done deliberately by the AAP to divert attention from the CAG report that will be presented tomorrow.” He said the CM’s office still has pictures of Babasaheb Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh, along with those of the prime minister, president, and Mahatma Gandhi. “This move is a clear attempt to distract the public,” Sirsa said.
“When AAP was in power, it suppressed the CAG report for three years. Now, when it is about to be released, they are creating unnecessary drama. No one respects Babasaheb Ambedkar more than we (BJP) do,” the minister added. Another minister in the BJP government, Ravinder Indraj, showed the portraits of Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar in the chief minister’s office in Assembly Vidhan Sabha and said the AAP leaders were “scared” because the CAG reports are going to be tabled in the House on Tuesday. “Most of their leaders were in jail on corruption charges and they fear that they might have to go again. Once the CAG report is out, they will have to face the consequences again. This is why they are acting out of desperation,” Indraj said. Cabinet minister Parvesh Verma slammed the AAP, claiming the opposition party’s MLAs disrupted the House, and “intruded” into the chief minister’s office in the Assembly, and it is unacceptable. “Over the past ten years, the Aam Aadmi Party has done nothing for the upliftment of Delhi. Today they have violated the dignity of the assembly,” he said.
Lambasting the AAP, BJP MLA Shikha Rai said “AAP is expert in doing drama and creating ruckus. They do not have the habit to be opposition, therefore, they did this drama today in the House. It’s sad”.
