Ruckus in assembly over Delhi BJP chief Gupta’s comment on Kejriwal

Gupta’s allegedly derogatory remarks came during a protest held on Sunday against Kejriwal’s recent comments criticising the BJP for seeking to make the Hindi movie, “The Kashmir Files”, tax-free in Delhi.

Proceedings of the Delhi assembly were briefly halted on Monday morning, after a ruckus erupted in the House over comments made by Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Adesh Gupta against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Three BJP legislators — Anil Bajpai, Jitender Mahajan and Ajay Mahawar — were suspended from the proceedings and marshalled out after they stood on benches to shout and did not heed speaker Ram Niwas Goel’s requests to sit down.

Ruckus erupted in Delhi assembly over remarks against Arvind Kejriwal.   (ANI)

Gupta’s allegedly derogatory remarks came during a protest held on Sunday against Kejriwal’s recent comments criticising the BJP for seeking to make the Hindi movie, “The Kashmir Files”, tax-free in Delhi.

Objecting to Gupta’s comments, AAP MLA Mohinder Goel moved a censure motion against the Delhi BJP chief in the assembly as soon as proceedings began on Monday. He demanded that the leader of the opposition, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, tender an apology. Other AAP MLAs also joined him and started raising slogans. A ruckus ensued after BJP legislators responded in kind, and the House proceedings had to be adjourned for about 15 minutes.

But the war of words between the two parties resumed as soon as the House reconvened and the speaker had to adjourn again for another 15 minutes. Meanwhile, AAP MLAs marched to the well of the house and staged a sit-in there, while raising slogans against BJP.

During discussion on the censure motion, MLA Bidhuri said, “If any indecent words have been used by anybody, I condemn it.”

Claiming that the video of the remarks made by Gupta is fabricated, Bidhuri said: “If there is any truth in the allegations against Adesh Gupta, I will apologise to CM Kejriwal with folded hands; otherwise Mohinder Goel will have to apologise in the House.”

The speaker asked Bidhuri to show him the video of the remarks later, and allowed the three suspended BJP MLAs to rejoin the House proceedings.

The censure motion was later passed by a voice vote.

Appearing in a press conference later, Bidhuri called the censure motion “unconstitutional”.

Gupta denied making derogatory remarks against Kejriwal and said, “It is not the culture of BJP to use foul language against anyone. Kejriwal showed inhuman attitude by terming the movie, which depicts the atrocities against Kashmiri Pandits, a lie. He should apologise to Kashmiri Pandits.”