Divided over the manner in which the Party would stage their protest against suspension of 25 Members of Parliament (MP) by the lok Sabha Speaker, the Congressmen `show’ over the above issue remained confined to mere completing formality.
Instead of staging a protest in-front of Raj Bhawan as per the call given by the Party leaders on Monday night, just two dozen of Party leaders collected near Gandhi Statue at GPO Park here on Tuesday morning. They later walked down to Bharatiya Janta Party’s (BJP) state head-quarter opposite Vidhan Bhawan to complete their protest call.
Sources in the Congress confirmed that after majority of Party workers advocated that the Party should staged a strong protest in front of Raj Bhawan so that they could directly target BJP as Governor Ram Naik, is a saffron leader, State president Nirmal Khatri directed the UPCC spokesman incharge, Virendra Madan to make it official that the Party would ghearo Raj Bhawan on Tuesday morning.
Subsequently Madan sent a SOS to media persons informing that they would staged a strong protest in-front of Raj Bhawan against Speakers decision to suspend 25 Party’s MP from Parliament. However, some other senior leaders, soon after learning of the programme, objected to above call and instead said that this might led to their confrontation with the district administration and that they had to face `force’ even for reaching till Raj Bhawan. They propagated a much easier way by collecting at GPO and later walking down till BJP state headquarter to register their protest. A senior leader in the Congress confirmed that soon after this proposal, state president, Nirmal Khatri reportedly changed the entire plan.
Interestingly, on Tuesday afternoon, chairman of the UPCC media committee, Satyadeo Tripathi tried to defend state president, claiming that the plan was changed at last minute just as they though that it would be better to directly target BJP whose Speaker gave undemocratic decision, than to ghearo Raj Bhawan, as Governor is a nominee of President and not of BJP Government at the Centre.
later, in sharp contrast their announcement, Khatri along with former state president, Dr Rita Bahuguna Joshi, and about two dozen other Party functionaries collected at GPO and raised their voice against the lok Sabha Speaker’s action. Demanding immediate cancellation of the suspension order, Congress leaders called it as a `black day’ for the Indian democracy. Soon after it, the Party leaders took procession to BJP’s office but just after the local police stopped them from proceeding further, the Party leaders dispersed claiming their protest a big `success’.
Meanwhile, BJP alleged that Congress was only “venting out its frustration” through such dramatics. “It’s only a drama and frustration of Congress,” BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak alleged. He said that the Speaker’s decision should be respected by legislators of all the parties. “The Congress is avoiding discussion on major issues.
When it was in power it avoided discussion on major issues and now when it’s in opposition it is adopting the same tactic,” Pathak claimed.
lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had suspended 25 Congress MPs over disruption of parliamentary proceedings under ruling 374 (A), leading to outrage from various quarters on Monday.