Pandemonium struck the Delhi Assembly on Wednesday when few Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MlAs and sacked Minister Kapil Mishra got into physical confrontation after the latter flashed a banner with allegations of corruption against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Some of the MlAs were seen “pouncing” on Mishra while he flashed a poster referring to the allegations. However, the AAP denied the allegations of attacking Mishra.
Immediately, the telecast to the media centre was disconnected while Speaker Ram Niwas Goel ordered him to be marshaled out of the House. Goel condemned the incident and said that he could punish both the parties for creating such a scene inside the Assembly.
later, Goel adjourned the House, which was convened to pass the State Good and Services Tax (GST) bill, for 15 minutes. Mishra accused Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia for “prompting” his MlAs to physically assault Mishra.
“If they were not happy with my action then they should have marshaled me out …The AAP leaders were behind this as the MlAs attacked me after they were prompted by the deputy Chief Minister. This is first time as MlA has been attacked like this inside the Assemble.” said the furious Mishra.
“I was not allowed to speak. The moment I attempted to speak, four to five AAP MlAs started hitting me.”
He also said that “he was not afraid”. “I am not afraid and I will continue to expose the AAP leaders and MlAs to bring out their realities.”
Mishra said that he will exhibit the documents exposing the corruption in the party (AAP) at the Constitution Club, here on Saturday.
AAP MlA from Greater Kailash, Saurabh Bhardwaj denied the allegation of AAP MlAs attacking Mishra and said the latter’s behaviour, since his suspension from party, was itself a revelation. “He just wants to implicate the AAP leaders and MlAs in some or the other way. The MlAs did not pounce or attack him while they only tried to stop him from jumping into the well of the house near the CM and deputy CM,” Bharadwaj told media.
Goel criticised the AAP MlAs involved in heckling sacked Minister Kapil Mishra inside the House, saying the incident was “deeply disturbing”.
The speaker said he will “look into the matter” while taking on Mishra over his demand that a special session be convened at the Ramlila Maidan here over allegations of corruption against the Chief Minister and Health Minister Satyendar Jain.
“Whatever happened today inside the Delhi Assembly is unfortunate. I am deeply disturbed with the incident. Whatever they (AAP MlAs) did was wrong. The MlAs should not have left their seats,” he said.
Delhi BJP president condemned the unruly scene witnessed in Delhi Assembly and said that the incident has fully exposed the anti-democratic face of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Manhandling of former Minister Kapil Mishra clearly shows that the AAP is not open to any dissent or Opposition. Similar incidents of manhandling have been witnessed in the Assembly earlier too, be it with leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta, MlA Om Prakash Sharma of the Opposition or with MlA Ved Prakash who resigned from AAP and ruling party dissident like Pankaj Pushkar.
Vijender Gupta, who was present in the house condemned the efforts of AAP to throttle the voice of the Opposition in the House. He criticised the physical mishandling of AAP member Kapil Mishra in the Delhi Assembly. It is unfortunate that he was not even warned once. Marshals were straight directed to remove him from the House.
loP said that BJP MlAs will meet l-G at the earliest to demand action against defaulting MlAs.
Rajouri Garden MlA, Manjinder Singh Sirsa demanded expulsion of AAP MlAs. “Behavior of the AAP legislators after demand of open session by Mishra was totally uncalled for and highly condemnable,” said Sirsa.