(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Two Congress legislators were yesterday suspended for an unprecedented three years from the Gujarat Assembly and another for one year after members came to blows over a demand for a discussion on the death of two children in Sabarmati's Asaram Ashram.
Speaker Rajendra Trivedi suspended Pratap Dudhat and Amrish Der for three years and Baldev Thakore for a year following acrimonious scenes in the assembly. The entire opposition Congress staged a walkout after the strong action by the speaker.
The disruptions erupted immediately after Question Hour as Congress legislator Vikram Madam sought to raise a point of order over the death of two children in the ashram in 2008, as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's Pradeepsinh Jadeja wanted a discussion on wasting time in the assembly.
Madam wanted to know whether the government intended to table the report of a commission entrusted to investigate the incident. But the speaker ruled that such points of order were not allowed.
Another Congress member Ambrish Der joined Madam and started questioning the speaker's ruling. As other Congress MLAs also started asking the same question, there was chaos in the assembly and the atmosphere became tense.
Apparently upset over something BJP MLA Jagdish Panchal told him, Dudhat rushed from his seat towards the treasury benches, grabbed a microphone from the desk and threw it towards Panchal. Fortunately, the microphone missed Panchal.
Dudhat's action created a furore as almost everybody got agitated and started shouting. This forced the speaker to adjourn the assembly for 10 minutes, which was later extended till 2.30pm.
Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel later reporters: 'This is a shameful incident which has never happened in the history of Gujarat Assembly. Misdoings of Congress MLAs Vikram Madam, Pratap Dudhat and Ambrish Der have been recorded by the CCTV cameras and we are going to request the speaker to make it accessible to the media.
'We are also going to request the speaker to take strict action against the violent behaviour by the three opposition members. None of our MLAs were such violent or used any foul language.
However, Dudhat said: 'The BJP is trying to shift the people's attention from public issues like the death of children in Asaram Ashram. We, as opposition, have every right to know about such public issues. But our voices are being gagged.
'For the last six to seven days, BJP MLA Jagdish Panchal has been uttering bad words and using foul language against me in the assembly. Today also, he spoke something bad about my mother which infuriated me and, in a spate of anger, I rushed towards him.
Later, the speaker suspended Dudhat for the entire budget session, but subsequently decided to suspend him and Der for three years, and Thakore for one year.
A day earlier the Telangana Assembly too witnessed a ruckus and Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary expelled two Congress MLAs and suspended 11 others for the entire session.
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