Tempers ran high in the Haryana Assembly on Tuesday following the alleged derogatory remarks made by Congress MLA Karan Singh Dalal which led to a face-off between him and leader of opposition and INLD’s Abhay Chautala, with both hurling abuses and brandishing their shoes at the each other.
While, Dalal was suspended for a year over his remarks made against Haryana during the calling attention motion on the issue of deletion of 25 lakh ration card holders, the State Assembly on the other passed a resolution to condemn him and Chautala for their ‘unruly behaviour’ in the House.
Earlier, Dalal’s remarks led to heated exchanges between treasury benches and Congress MLAs forcing the House to be adjourned thrice.
The trouble began when the Congress MLA while lashing out at the Haryana Government, made a comment regarding the situation in the State under BJP's rule.
Taking strong objection to Dalal's remarks, Cabinet Ministers Capt Abhimanyu, Anil Vij and OP Dhankar, dubbed it as an insulating statement for Haryana and its 2.5 crore population.
Within few minutes, the treasury benches were on their feet, demanding an apology from the Congress MLA. Soon after, the BJP MLAs started shouting slogan ‘Karan Dalal Murdabad’.
While Dalal stood up to give clarification on the issue, the BJP legislators did not let him speak and kept interrupting him.
“I did not abuse Haryana but condemned the State Government,” Dalal said.
However, the BJP MLAs vehemently protested against Dalal and also, demanded his suspension from the House.
At this time, the repeated pleas from Deputy Speaker Santosh Yadav to BJP legislators to remain seated, went unheeded, forcing her to adjourn the House for ten minutes.
When the House reconvened, the BJP MLAs remained adamant on their demand to send Congress legislator Dalal out of the House. Dhankar and Vij along with other party MLAs demanded that Dalal should be suspended from the House. Following this, Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar asked all legislators to use words wisely and maintain the decorum of the House.
Leader of Opposition Abhay Chautala urged the Speaker to take the issue seriously as a State MLA has spoken against Haryana and hurt the sentiments of people of the State.
He (Dalal) should be suspended from the House and we will support it, Chautala said.
This led to heated arguments between Dalal and Abhay Chautala. And, the situation became worse when the two legislators took out their shoes and advanced aggressively towards each other.
The two MLAs were seen hurling abuses at each other as the Speaker summoned House marshals to form a human chain around them.
Amid pandemonium, the Speaker adjourned the House for 15 minutes.
Later, the INLD sailed with the BJP legislators, saying that Congress legislator should be suspended for one year for his behaviour in the House.
Finance Minister moved a motion for one-year suspension of Dalal. Congress legislators, however, tried to defend Dalal and alleged that the Government is doing injustice with an elected member.
Terming the whole controversy as unfortunate, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that Karan Dalal was not given a chance to give explanation. I apologise on behalf of Karan Dalal and my party if anyone is hurt. But such action should not be taken without listening to Karan Dalal's explanation, Hooda said
The decorum of the House should be maintained, he added. The motion of Dalal's suspension was later passed by voice vote.
Reacting to his suspension, Dalal said he will challenge the decision in Punjab and Haryana High Court.
After the House assembled post-lunch break for the second sitting of the day, the Congress MLAs flayed the Government for suspending Karan Dalal.
Senior Congress leader Raghubir Kadian asked the Speaker about rules under which the Congress MLA has been suspended for a year.
He went onto said if you ( Speaker) manage to show any such rule, I will resign from the House. Former Speaker and Congress MLA Kuldeep Sharma said that the decision will be challenged in the HC.
Soon after, the Congress MLAs trooped into the Well of the House and pleaded with the Speaker to reconsider the decision. Amid ruckus, Finance Minister stood up and moved a resolution condemning the behaviour of Abhay Chautala and Karan Dalal.
Protesting against the decision, the INLD legislators staged a walkout while the Congress legislators remained adamant over the withdrawal of suspension of their MLA.
At this point, the Speaker again announced to adjourn the House for another 30 minutes.
Later, the Deputy Speaker announced to adjourn the House for another ten minutes.
The Speaker later informed the Congress MLAs that the matter has been re-considered and the decision of suspension of Karan Dalal will not be withdrawn.
“Whatever the House decided earlier, it is the final decision,” he told the Congress MLAs.
On this, Congress senior leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda demanded that the motion be put to vote again, which was disallowed by the Speaker.
Accusing the Government of doing injustice, the Congress legislators staged a walkout of the State Assembly.
Later, independent MLA Jai Parkash also staged a walkout criticising the treasury benches and INLD for suspending an elected representative for a year.