Shimla: Agitated by a provocative comment of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, which the opposition termed as derogatory, BJP legislators disrupted the state assembly for the second consecutive day and walked out of after question hour, without participating in the days listed out business.
As the house commenced for taking up the days question hour and other listed business, the opposition was on its feet drawing the Speakers attention to the Chief Minister’s alleged comments made outside the house yesterday.
Raising the issue, senior BJP member Suresh Bhardwaj said that the chief minister by commenting that the opposition was like bonded labour of Prem Kumar Dhumal was not just against the dignity of the leader of the opposition but was also derogatory against every member of the house.
Adding more fuel to fire, younger BJP members turned up in dresses with a cartoon that depicted apple trees raining currency notes.
Speaker Brij Bihari Butail did ask the opposition members to stop making a display of such dresses as it was against the rules of the house but failed to prevent them from doing so.
Amidst the prevailing pandemonium of slogan shouting, the speaker ordered for taking up the listed questions. The questions raised by opposition members went unanswered as they did not participate in the proceedings.
Soon after the question hour, all BJP members staged a walkout.
The chief minister clarified that he had not hurt any opposition member as he never labelled them as bonded labour. He asked the Speaker to expunge all derogatory remarks and slogans made by the opposition.
About alleged corruption charges levelled by the opposition, the chief minister said that he had himself demanded a CBI probe into them.
“I had filed defamation suit against opposition leader Prem Kumar Dhumal and his two sons Anurag Thakur and Arun Dhumal as well as Arun Jaitely, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajaya Sabha,” said Virbhadra Singh.
The Speaker asked the media to desist from reporting on the slogans raised in the house. He even pointed out that the alleged corruption matter was sub judice as it was before the courts.
Asking the opposition to abide by the rules of the house, the speaker warned that he would be forced to take action again those members who disrupt the house proceedings.
Parliamentary affairs minister Mukesh Agnihotri said that opposition had wasted valuable time of house as it even boycotted the Governors address yesterday.
He said that the opposition was deliberately adopting obstructionist tactics, knowing fully well that the house had been convened to pass the budget as well as important legislation was listed to be taken up during the session.
Mohan Verma is a seasoned journalist, with more than a decade of experience of active reporting for news agencies and fast paced online media.
The media’s gameplan became obvious immediately after the Anna Hazare fast in
August 2012 when the Congress led UPA was stripped of its stated resolve to fight corruption in high places – with its sham antics to appease, cajole, corrupt, threaten and finally demonise Anna Hazare through the media. The fourth pillar of our democratic system, which till August ’12 was all over Hazare in admiration of his anti-corruption conviction, suddenly turned critic with a spate of “revelations” against him – and one must be truly naive and daft to believe the ruling Establishment did not have a hand in giving the media a hand to bite the hand that gave it its legitimacy! And the systematically played out charade of bringing the maverick Arvind Kejriwal to his ‘senses’ by a pliant media was a no brainer. Avay Shukla’s mention of the ownership pattern of the media giants (including Tehelka and NDTV) shows the devious influence of the powers that be on the socalled guardians of our faith in democracy. But he also should have made a reference to politicians’ wives and girlfriends in the media, who add to the nefarious influence of a political configuration that has long gone sour with the Indian citizen. It is only poetic justice that this concoction should be put to sleep once and for all; and as for the media, no one will regret its demise, considering the honesty with which it has lived out its life. Yet, one can be sure that like the proverbial cat it will come back to life, once again licking the feet of its new masters, whoever it is!