Unruly scenes and disruption of the proceedings of Himachal Pradesh Assembly over the past four days culminated in the Government tabling an unprecedented pre-mature sine die adjournment motion on Tuesday stating that it has no further business to transact.
Put to voice vote by Speaker BBl Butail, the motion was adopted before the assembly was indefinitely adjourned. The stance of the Opposition BJP boycotting the 16-day Monsoon Session, appeared to have been resolved as they took their seats for participating in the Question Hour on Tuesday.
But as the Question Hour ensued, the Opposition intentionally boycotted the Chief Minister, choosing not to raise a question when the reply was to come from the Chief Minister. Seizing an opportunity, chief Minister Virbhadra Singh deliberately intervened to reply to a question about a cloud burst in Nahan raised by senior BJP member Rajiv Bindal. The question was actually to be replied by Revenue Minister Kaul Singh Thakur.
Ignoring the Chief Minister’s reply to the question and continuing with the tactical boycott, the entire Opposition trooped out of the House. But as soon as the Chief Minister finished his reply, the Opposition returned to take their seats in the house. Agitated by the Opposition move, the Chief Minister lashed out at it, saying it was only attending the House sessions to claim their allowances. They were frequently evading participating in the listed business as they were not showing any interest in its proceedings, he added.
Speaker Butail’s efforts to pacify the situation did not have much impact on the legislators. “I cannot force any member to raise a question, nor can I force any Minister to answer a question. However, I want to run the House smoothly, and end the frequent disruptions,” said Butail. BJP chief whip Suresh Bhardwaj quipped in that Ministers were not replying to questions and in contempt of the chair were even ignoring the speakers’ directions.
He was referring to power minister Sujjan Singh Pathania, who had deliberately chosen not to reply to a question put to him. leader of the Opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal said that raising question was an opposition’s right but a Minister could not ignore replying to it. In case a minister was not in a position to reply to a question in the house, he could authorise it to a Cabinet colleague, said Dhumal.
Recalling the boycott of BJP member Rajiv Bindal when he was Health Minister by Congress in the earlier Ggovernment, Dhumal said there was precedence that justified boycott of the Chief Minister. As the day’s listed business was drawing to a close and before the Speaker could announce it, parliamentary affairs Minister Mukesh Agnihotri got up and sought adjournment of the assembly for an indefinite period.
“Since much of the business before the House is over, the Government wants to adjourn the Assembly sine die,” said Agnihotri. Finding the tables turned on them, the BJP members opposed the move. Opposition leader Dhumal said that the government was not in a position to face the opposition and were making every attempt to evade discussion on the money laundering case pending before the Delhi High Court.
He said that he was prepared for a discussion about the HPCA case but the Speaker needed to ensure that the allegations leveled against chief minister Virbhadra Singh would also be discussed. Insisting on adjourning the house sine die, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said that as there was a stalemate between the Government and Opposition, the Government had no further business to transact.
“Frequent disruptions were a sheer wastage of public money. I request the speaker to adjourn the House sine die,” said Virbhadra. With the Speaker pointing out that there were a number of important bills pending before the House, the Chief Minister said, “we can again convene the house in the next two months.”
The Speaker sought that the adjournment be made till Wednesday, and wanted time to study the rule book whether he was entitled to abruptly adjourn the House sine die. Senior Congress leader Asha Kumari intervened and asked for adjourning the House till after the lunch break, when the chair could give its ruling.
After the House re-assembled after lunch, the speaker gave his ruling that under Rule 20 of the Vidhan Sabha, the house could be adjourned by the Speaker on his own motion or on such a resolution moved by the house. The resolution moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister was put to voice vote and was adopted by a majority vote. Shouting slogans the opposition vacated the House.
Convened on August 6, the monsoon session of Himachal Pradesh Assembly was scheduled to hold 16 sessions and was planned to conclude on August 29.