Haryana Assembly plunged into a chaos on Monday when the Congress MlAs returned to attend the proceedings of the House on the eighth day of ongoing Budget session alleging that the suspension of their three MlAs is unconstitutional.
The trouble began during the beginning of question hour when Congress MlA Karan Singh Dalal questioned Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar under which rule three Congress MlAs have been suspended for six months and barred from taking up membership of any Vidhan Sabha Committee for a period of one year.
The issue triggered off heated exchanges between the BJP and Congress legislatures throwing the State Assembly into pandemonium. later, the Congress MlAs also staged a walk-out of the Assembly on the issue.
Congress MlAs alleged that suspension of their three MlAs namely former Speaker Kuldeep Sharma, Jaiveer Singh and Jagbir Singh Malik was unconstitutional, against the democratic rights and reflects the undemocratic attitude of the BJP Government. The Congress MlAs also demanded withdrawal of suspension of the three MlAs.
Responding to this, the Speaker told Congress’ Karan Dalal to let the question hour end and they would be given time to raise their issues.
Following this, Haryana Minister Capt. Abhimanyu and Anil Vij launched a scathing attack on the Congress alleging that the opposition has prepared a strategy to again go out of the House and hence, disrupting the proceedings.
leader of opposition and INlD senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala intervened saying that the three Congress MlAs should be called back now.
While Congress MlAs kept asking the Speaker to mention the rule under which three Congress MlAs were suspended, the treasury benches continued to pitch up the ante against the Congress questioning their absence in the State Assembly during the discussion on SYl and Jat reservation stir issues.
The Congress MlAs then staged a brief walkout of the Assembly
After the end of question hour, the Speaker pointed out that the Congress MlAs have not signed the attendance register and cannot attend the House proceedings without signing the register.
On this, Health Minister urged the Speaker to call marshals to take out the Congress legislators of the House.
Speaker Kanwar Pal then told the Congress MlAs to sign the attendance register and only then attend the House proceedings following which the Congress MlAs left stated that they would not take part in the House proceedings now.
Notably, barring MlA Randeep Singh Surjewala who was not present in the house on March 14, all the other Congress members had been suspended from Haryana Assembly for interrupting the Governor’s address and staging a walkout when he was speaking.
The House had also passed a resolution that the Congress members shall remain suspended for five sittings till the time a discussion on the Governor’s address gets over.
later on March 15, three Congress MlAs were suspended for six months for tearing the copies of Governor’s Address.
Haryana Assembly Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar had on March 17 announced to allow only 11 Congress MlAs to attend the assembly session, reducing their suspension punishment by one day.