Demand for discussion on Birbhum carnage stirs row, 5 BJP MLAs suspended for ruckus
War of words degenerated into fisticuffs inside the Bengal Assembly with the Trinamool Congress and BJP legislators on Monday exchanging blows over the Birbhum burning and mass murder case that left eight people dead last week. Another woman who sustained 65 per cent burn succumbed to her injuries on Monday morning taking the official toll of the dead to nine.
A number of MLAs from both sides reported injuries in the scuffle in the Assembly. But TMC legislator Asit Majumdar had to be hospitalised with broken nose allegedly given to him by Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari.
The incident started when Adhikari demanded discussion over the Rampurhat violence and Speaker Biman Benerjee turned the request. Soon slogan-shouting BJP MLAs assembled near the Speaker’s chair demanding Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s statement in the House. The treasury bench too jumped into the melee.
Even as the two sides jostled — with the marshalls trying to separate them — blows started raining and Majumdar, an MLA from Hooghly district, suffered a blow on his nose. His spectacles broke and he was rushed to hospital and was admitted to the woodburn ward of the state-of-the-art SSKM Hospital.
“Being a senior man, I was requesting the two sides to calm down when Adhikari hit me and broke my glass and nose,” Majumdar told the media with his nose bleeding.
However, Adhikari who along with other senior leaders took out a massive rally of the BJP supports in North Kolkata said he was only trying to pacify to the two sides and had in fact escorted his party men out of the House.
He alleged “the Government pushed in policemen in civil dress and made them manhandle us … Had I not taken my MLAs out we would have been badly injured considering the past record of the TMC leaders and their party men.”
BJP MLA Manoj Tigga later complained that he had been beaten up by the TMC MLAs who tore his dress.
Later, the Speaker suspended Adhikari and four other BJP MLAs, including Manoj Tigga, Shankar Ghosh, Narahari Mahato, and Dipak Mahato for “misconduct”.
“This is unprecedented in history of Bengal … the Assembly is a place for decent exchange of views … even heated exchanges often take place … but this indecent conduct has denigrated the prestige and dignity of the House,” the Speaker said.
Attacking the Opposition leaders, he said, “They do not disturb the Prime Minister during his speech in Parliament … but they have made ita point to create ruckus inside this House every day … Today things reached extreme … The way they attacked women guards is veryunfortunate. It would have been better had the incident not occurred
…I have asked the secretary to take stock of the materialdestruction.”
Calling the Speaker’s action of suspending the Opposition MLA sundemocratic Adhikari said, “We will bring this issue up before theGovernor who is also the custodian of the House … we have beensuspended undemocratically though our MLAs were beaten up by the TMC men … if the Speaker does not give us justice we will move the High Court.”
In the evening, the BJP took out a long procession in north-centra lKolkata protesting the “goonda raj perpetrated by the TMC regime both in the districts and inside the Assembly”.Adhikari said his party would launch a Nabanna (State secretariat) march in April.