Kolkata, Sep 5
West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay on Friday defended and explained his action to suspend a total of five BJP legislators one after another within a span of just less than two hours on the last and the third day of the special session of the West Bengal assembly on September 4.
On Thursday, the BJP legislators started protesting and raising slogans coming down to the Well of the House while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was delivering her address on the motion on the issue of harassment of Bengali-speaking people in the BJP-ruled states.
At that point of time, the Speaker suspended five BJP legislators one after another within less than two hours.
The BJP legislators were protesting against the decision to suspend the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, for the session earlier on Tuesday, which was the second day of the special session of the house.
Two of the suspended BJP legislators, namely the Chief Whip of the BJP’s legislative party in the West Bengal assembly, Shankar Ghosh, and his party legislator Bankim Ghosh, were hospitalised after they fell sick being roughed up by the Assembly marshals.
Interacting with the mediapersons on Friday, he said that he took decisions on the suspension of five BJP legislators and calling in of the marshals to control the chaos within the house on Thursday as per provisions of law.
“Many might describe me as biased personally. But my chair is not. No individual is beyond criticism,†the Speaker said.
He, however, said that the events of intervention by the marshals and the hospitalization of the Chief Whip were unfortunate. He also said that the marshal was hospitalised.
“Had the BJP legislators acted as per the law of the assembly, I would not have to opt for tough actions. If anyone uses force within the assembly, the necessity arises to stop him or her from doing so. The BJP legislators should have acted in a much more restrained manner on Thursday. There had never been a fight within the assembly. I have acted only as per the law,†the Speaker said on Friday.
On Thursday, BJP’s national president, J.P. Nadda, called up Adhikari to enquire about the health conditions of the two hospitalised party legislators.
J.P. Nadda had also sought photographs and videos of their scuffle with assembly marshals as supporting documents.
— IANS
Reader Comments
BJP MLAs should have protested in a dignified manner instead of creating chaos. The Speaker is right - if you break assembly rules, you face consequences. But physical force should never be used against elected representatives.
Typical TMC tactics! First suspend opposition leader, then suspend protesting MLAs, and then claim "as per law". This is dictatorship, not democracy. Shameful what happened to BJP MLAs in hospital.
As an observer, I'm concerned about the deteriorating standards of legislative conduct across India. Elected representatives should debate issues, not engage in physical altercations. Both ruling and opposition parties need to do better.
The real issue is being lost here - harassment of Bengali speakers in other states. Instead of addressing that, we have political drama. Our politicians need to focus on people's problems, not political games.
Speaker sahab is correct - no individual is beyond criticism. But the way marshals handled the situation shows complete breakdown of parliamentary decorum. Both sides should apologize and move forward for the people's work.
We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.