Ruckus and sloganeering continued for the second consecutive day in Haryana Assembly on Tuesday with the Opposition demanding an inquiry by the CBI into the allegations of corruption against HSSC chairman, forcing Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar to adjourn the House for half an hour and later, suspended legislators of Indian National lok Dal for the rest of the budget session for their ‘unruly behavior’.
It was like a repeat telecast of Monday’s proceedings in the House on Tuesday with Opposition and treasury benches raising slogans against each other, adjournment of proceedings due to unrelenting protest by Opposition, walkout, Opposition rushing to the Well of the House and marshals being called in to take suspended INlD legislators out of the House.
During the zero hour, the State Assembly witnessed uproarious scenes for about two and a half hours with INlD vociferously demanding a registration of an FIR and an inquiry by Central Bureau of Investigation into the two viral audio conversations alleging financial impropriety by Bharat Bhushan Bharti, chairman of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC).
Noisy protests and anti-Government slogans had disrupted the State Assembly on Monday as well on the same issue following which the Speaker had suspended the entire Opposition including INlD and Congress MlAs for the day.
leader of Opposition and INlD’s senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala on Tuesday sought a reply from the Chief Minister Manohar lal on whether an inquiry by the CBI would be conducted into the audio conversations.
On the other hand, BJP MlAs, while waving copies of newspapers demanded a discussion on controversial Manesar land deal a day after the Supreme Court had set aside previous Congress led Haryana Government’s decision to drop land acquisition proceedings for 688 acres.
Both BJP and INlD MlAs were on their feet, to raise their demands. After this, Chief Minister intervened and said that first, an investigation is done and then accordingly, an action is taken against the accused.
Referring to opposition’s demand, he said that if we set a wrong precedent, people would continue leaking such videos and audios on social media and can accuse anyone.
The Chief Minister also cited various incidents of corruption under previous Congress regime, INlD regime and even, current BJP regime, where a preliminary investigation was done and then, an action including registration of FIR was taken against the accused.
Manohar lal also referred to Apex Court’s decision on Monday into the Manesar land scam and attacked the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda led Congress Government in Haryana.
Reacting to CM’s statement, Abhay Chautala accused the BJP led Haryana Government of doing nothing to punish Bhupinder Singh Hooda for indulging in corruption and also, sought an apology from the ruling BJP in the House for saving Hooda in various land scams.
He went onto say that the Government is now trying to save HSSC chairman and the Chief Minister has already given him a clean chit a day before in the House. The Government should get a CBI inquiry done into the matter and ask the HSSC chairperson to resign, he added.
On this, the Chief Minister informed the House that Direction General, State Vigilance Bureau has been directed to examine the two audio conversations alleging financial impropriety by HSSC chairperson. A report in this regard will be submitted within one month, Manohar lal said.
While the Opposition MlAs returned to their seats after Speaker’s request, the ruckus continued with Chautala demanding that Chief Minister’s Monday’s statement on the issue should be read out where he had given a clean chit to the HSSC chairperson.
The Chief Minister, in an attempt to pacify the agitated INlD legislators, clarified that he had only said that audio had named HSSC chairperson’s son and not him.
Amid the din, the Speaker announced to adjourn the House for 15 minutes. later, it was announced to adjourn the House for another 15 minutes. When the House reconvened, INlD legislators remained adamant on their demand of resignation of HSSC chairperson and a CBI inquiry into the viral audio clips.
INlD MlA Jaswinder Singh Sandhu kept pleading with the Speaker to sought resignation of the chairperson and a CBI inquiry into the controversy. Soon after, the Speaker ‘named’ Jaswinder Sandhu and directed the marshals to take him out of the House.
Moments later, the Speaker also ‘named’ leader of Opposition Abhay Chautala and other INlD legislators for disrupting the House proceedings on the same issue and directed the marshals to send them out of the House.
The Speaker, however, told Abhay Chautala that he will withdraw his decision if Chautala wants to speak during the debate on Budget estimates 2018-19. The Speaker’s decision was opposed by Congress MlAs who also staged a brief walkout in protest.
Following the scenes of ruckus that continued for more than two hours in the House, the Speaker announced to suspend INlD legislators for the rest of the Budget session for disrupting the Assembly proceedings.
Haryana Assembly passed a resolution moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ram Bilas Sharma that barred INlD legislators to attend the House until March.