The entire Opposition, including the JMM, the JVM and the Congress on Friday disrupted the Assembly proceedings and staged a walkout when newly appointed Speaker Dinesh Oraon did not adjourn the House at 12.30 pm citing time crunch.
The whole conundrum started when a JMM member indicated to the Chair on the continuation of the proceeding and not breaking it for Friday prayer which has been the precedence so far. Objecting to the intervention, Parliamentary Affairs Minister CP Singh proposed that the members willing to go for the prayer are free to do so and the Speaker should allow them to leave. “As today is the last day of the Assembly and debates on the Thanks Giving Motion on the Governor address and on supplementary Budget are to take place it would not be sane to halt the proceeding,” added Singh.
Though, the interjection infuriated the members even further and JMM’s Stephen Marandi termed it a violation of set traditions “which would send across a wrong message.” The protest was promptly joined by JVM’s Pradeep Yadav and Manoj Yadav of the Congress. However, the Speaker did not yield to the Opposition pressure. “Those who are getting affected are free of go for the prayer. Many of them have left already and this should not be made an issue,” said the Speaker. This did not pacify the agitating members and Marandi said that by allowing the proceeding to continue the praying members had been deprived of the debate. “They have been forced to leave silently as they were not left with any choice,” alleged the JMM leader. At least two members Irfan Ansari and Alamgir Alam — both of the Congress — are from the minority community in the House.
Finally, the Speaker passed the ruling. “I am hereby allowing the proceeding to continue. At the same time I respect the feelings of the members,” said Oraon. This led to the walkout leaving only BJP and AJSU members in the House while BSP’s Kushwaha Shivpujan Mehta who was speaking when the issue snowballed, continued his speech. Although, the House was adjourned for lunch break just half an hour later and resumed after an hour.
later, speaking outside, leader of the Opposition Hemant Soren termed the incident unforeseen in the 14 years of history of Jharkhand Assembly. “The House is run by traditions. This Government is neglecting the minorities as no member of it comes from the minority community. The Speaker should have seen this matter differently,” Soren said. Congress’ Badal Patralekh accused the Government of making its intentions clear at the beginning itself.
However, BJP’s Saryu Roy put the ball in the Speaker’s court. “There is no such provision (for breaking the proceeding for Friday Prayer). And when the Speaker gave a ruling the matter should have died down then and there. Instead, not following the ruling is akin to disregarding the parliamentary norms,” he said. Guidelines set for running the House have no mention for an early break for the prayer. later, CP Singh stressed that mending traditions was not a new thing. “It is not necessary to toe the same old line always. The Speaker has taken a decision from his own wisdom. Why to question thisIJ Politics should be kept away from religion and no one should indulge into appeasement,” said the Minister.