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BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari suspended from Bengal Assembly for a day
Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, alleged that education minister Bratya Basu insulted the Army in his speech in the House
Kolkata: West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee suspended leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari for a day on Tuesday on charges of disrupting the debate on a motion the Trinamool Congress (TMC) moved condemning the detention of Bengali-speaking migrant workers at various Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states in recent months.
“I am forced to suspend you for the day for repeatedly interrupting the proceedings,” Banerjee said, prompting Adhikari and the BJP MLAs to shout slogans before staging a walkout.
Defending his actions, Adhikari alleged that education minister Bratya Basu insulted the Army in his speech on the motion.
“I raised objections when Basu compared the Army’s decision to dismantle the TMC podium in the Maidan area on Monday to the military coup in Bangladesh in which president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed,” Adhikari told the media after leaving the assembly house.
“The Speaker suspended me for shouting slogans hailing our great Army. All BJP MLAs raised slogans protesting Basu’s anti-Army comments. We walked out,” Adhikari said.
The disruption took place during a special three-day session of the assembly that commenced on Monday, hours before TMC chairperson and chief minister Mamata Banerjee rushed to the Maidan area when officers from the Eastern Command Headquarters at Fort William dismantled a podium TMC had built a month ago to project the Bengali language.
Citing standing orders of the Calcutta high court and defence department regulations, the Army said no temporary structure is allowed in the Maidans, which is under the ministry of defence, for more than 48 hours. The permission given to TMC for setting up the bamboo and tarpaulin structure was time-bound, the Army said.
Instructing party leaders to shift the venue, Banerjee accused the BJP central leadership of using the Army against TMC. This triggered a row that affected Tuesday’s assembly proceedings as well.
“I referred to the sufferings the Bengali-speaking people faced when mass killings and atrocities were carried out by the Pakistan Army in Dhaka and Rangpur (in Bangladesh) in 1971. If condemning those actions by the Pakistan army is a crime then I will do it over and over again,” minister Basu told the media.
TMC legislators claimed Adhikari misrepresented Basu’s comments.
They said Basu drew a parallel between Monday’s incident and the sacrifices Bengali-speaking people of East Pakistan made after India’s Partition to protect their mother tongue and fight West Pakistan until Bangladesh was born in 1971.
Adhikari, however, stuck to his allegation saying, “How can a minister of an Indian state compare our Army with that of Pakistan?”
This is not the first time Adhikari and other BJP MLAs faced action during assembly proceedings.
On June 11, the speaker allowed a privilege motion moved by TMC legislators against Adhikari for allegedly making defamatory remarks against Mamata Banerjee outside the assembly house.
On June 23, the BJP lodged a police complaint against the marshals of the assembly accusing them of assaulting nine party MLAs of whom four were suspended by the Speaker that day.
The suspended MLAs, Shankar Ghosh, Manoj Oraon, Deepak Barman and Agnimitra Paul got into a scuffle with the marshals when the latter tried to escort them out of the House, cabinet minister Firhad Hakim claimed, denying the allegation of assault.
