SYL row: All INLD MLAs ‘named’, sent out of House
CHANDIGARH:All legislators of the opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) were ‘named’ and sent out of the House by the speaker on Thursday after they raised slogans against Congress MLA Randeep Surjewala and demanded that he be sent out for his “betrayal’’ with Haryana on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal.
The MLAs were sent out by speaker Kanwar Pal after din prevailed in the House, despite repeated adjournments of the proceedings. He asked members of the two opposition parties not to use “bad words”, telling BJP MLA Gian Chand Gupta to speak on the budgetary proposals.
However, leader of the Opposition Abhay Chautala kept insisting that Surjewala should be sent out of the House. The situation aggravated when the speaker asked Abhay to sit and told Gupta to continue. The INLD MLAs started shouting slogans against Surjewala – ‘SYL gaddaar, sadan se baahaar’ (SYL traitor, be sent out of House) and ‘Haryana ka gaddaar, sadan se baahaar’.
When they did not stop, the speaker ‘named’ all the INLD MLAs present and adjourned the House for another 15 minutes. The ‘named’ INLD members continued to sit in the House and started shouting slogans against the government. The marshals asked them to leave but to no avail. Their requests were ignored by members of the opposition party for about 10 minutes. But before the members reassembled, they were sent out.
While the opposition Congress and the INLD slugged it out, the ruling party legislators enjoyed their noisy exchanges.
Chautala later told reporters that he was shocked to see the BJP government allow Surjewala to sit, despite his “stand against Haryana on the SYL canal issue”, and send members of the INLD, which fought for the canal, out of the House.
The verbal duel between the two opposition parties had started during the Question Hour. The Congress and the BJP members were sparring over the remark of a minister when Chautala trained his guns at Surjewala. “When the Congress released its manifesto for the Punjab elections, Surjewala was present,” he said only to be interrupted by the Congress leader.
Surjewala objected to his charge, leading to slogan shouting by INLD members. The two sides kept hitting out at each other till the speaker ‘named’ the INLD members. The speaker later revoked their suspension on the request of parliamentary affairs minister Ram Bilas Sharma. However, the members did not return to the House.
I was shocked to see the BJP government allow Surjewala to sit despite his stand against Haryana on the SYL issue, and send members of the INLD out of the House. ABHAY CHAUTLA, INLD leader