Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki’s traditional address to the State Assembly on Monday, marking the beginning of Budget Session was marred by protest and walkout from Opposition parties.
As Solanki started his address, Congress and INlD legislators stood up to raise the contentious issues of SYl canal and Jat agitation. While Congress legislators demanded that the Governor should not read his address following the BJP-led State Government’s failure to contain violence during Jat agitation, INlD MlAs demanded statement on the SYl issue as neighbouring Punjab passed a bill to return land acquired for SYl to the original landowners.
The Congress boycotted the Governor’s address and staged a walkout, however, the INlD did not and leader of Opposition and INlD senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala requested the Governor to give assurance to the house on the issue.
Following this, the Governor said, “I have heard everyone and address is important for the people of the state under the constitutional procedure.” Things will be done as per the law, he added. After Governor’s address, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ram Bilas Sharma moved a resolution to suspend Congress members for disrupting the address.
Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar along with all BJP MlAs seconded the resolution. While all 14 Congress MlAs who were present in the House were suspended till the discussion on Governor’s address is over, INlD legislators got away with condemnation.
Soon after, the Congress legislators jumped into the well raising slogans against the BJP led Haryana Government and also tear down the copies of Governor’s address.
Haryana Assembly plunged into a chaos with the Congress and BJP legislators raising slogans against each other as marshals were called in to take the Congress MlAs out of the house.
The chaos continued in the house as the INlD legislators demanded that the condemnation resolution against them should be withdrawn since they raised the SYl issue in the interest of people of Haryana. The INlD legislators also staged a brief walkout on the issue.
Condemning the opposition for disrupting the Governor’s address, the Chief Minister said that an all party meeting was held on Saturday to discuss the SYl issue and Governor had assured the MlAs to look into the issue.
“Then, why it was raised in the House today. Constitutional process should be followed and nobody should have disrupted the Governor’s address,” said he raising questions on opposition’s intentions. Both INlD and Congress MlAs should not have done this protest, he added.
On this, HJC MlA Kuldeep Bishnoi questioned the ruling BJP on why only Congress legislators were dismissed and INlD got away with condemnation while both parties were involved in disrupting the Governor’s address.
He also requested the Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar that Congress MlAs should be called back. INlD’s Jaswinder Sandhu, MlA Jai Parkash also seconded his demand saying that this is an important session and Congress legislators should be allowed to attend the House proceedings.
On the other hand, the BJP legislators demanded strict action against the Congress MlAs for tearing down the copy of Governor’s address.
leader of the Haryana Congress legislature Party (ClP) Kiran Choudhry termed the decision of Speaker to suspend all Congress MlAs from the Vidhan Sabha as unconstitutional, against the democratic rights and reflects the undemocratic attitude of the BJP Government.
She said, “We have not been allowed to read obituaries, especially at a time when the state has recently witnessed such mayhem resulting in innocent deaths and loss of property of hundreds of innocent people.”
This action of BJP is unprecedented and shows their immaturity towards democratic norms and precedents which have always been followed, she added.