Speaker revokes suspension of three Congress MLAs

Suspension terminated after the House, including Cong legislators, agrees that tearing copies of guv’s speech not right

CHANDIGARH: Haryana assembly speaker Kanwar Pal revoked the suspension of three Congress MLAs on Friday with immediate effect.

The suspension of the three legislators — Kuldeep Sharma, Jagbir Malik and Jaiveer Valmiki — was terminated on the opening day of the monsoon session of the state assembly after the House, including Congress members, agreed that copies of the governor’s address should not be torn. The speaker announced the decision to revoke the suspension after taking sense of the House.

The three MLAs were suspended from the House for six months on March 16 this year for disrupting the governor’s address and tearing copies of his speech during the Budget session.

They were also barred from participating in meetings of any assembly committee for one year. The infuriated Congress members had also boycotted the proceedings to register their protest.

The decision to end their suspension came after Congress MLA Randeep Surjewala raised the issue, saying the role of opposition was important and as decisive as that of the treasury benches. “It is the duty and responsibility of the speaker to ensure that all groups are heard,” he said, making a request for revocation of suspension.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Gian Chand Gupta immediately objected to his charge, saying that the voice of opposition was not suppressed. “Decorum must be maintained. The House took the decision to suspend the three members,” he said.

The speaker also said everyone should follow the rules and maintain decorum. “If the three members had accepted their mistake, they could have been allowed to participate in the proceedings. No other Congress member was stopped from attending the House. It was their decision not to come to the House,” he said.

‘GOVT SHOWING ARROGANCE OF NUMBERS’

Surjewala said confrontation, stubbornness and arrogance of majority was not good for anyone in democracy. “We have majority sometimes. They have majority sometimes. The numbers keep changing,” he said before being interrupted by finance minister Capt Abhimanyu.

The minister said the chief minister and the speaker had set an example by being liberal in giving opportunity to members to express their views, but decorum must be maintained. “If the Congress members are accepting what the three MLAs did was not right, then this House will consider the matter and take it forward.

Instead of defending them, it would have been better to suggest to them to follow decorum,” he said. The Congress MLA responded by reiterating his charge. “We were also in the treasury benches, but were more generous. Don’t be stubborn. My colleagues have not violated any decorum or any rules,” he said to guffaws from the BJP members.

Health minister Anil Vij said he was happy that the Congress had learnt the meaning of obstinacy, arrogance and power of numbers due to a small experiment of the speaker. “When they were in the treasury benches, they used to suspend us without any provocation,” he said, urging the speaker to consider the Congress request sympathetically.

‘TEARING COPIES OF GUV’S SPEECH IS INSULT OF HOUSE’

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who intervened in the discussion, said democracy does not mean free for all. “There are rules and regulation. Tearing copies of the governor’s address is an insult to the governor and the House. He does not belong to any party,” he said. The speaker also asked Congress members to make their stand clear on whether the action of the three MLAs was wrong or not.

When Surjewala did not budge and repeated some of his earlier remarks, Khattar said rules must be followed. Congress MLA Bhupinder Singh Hooda joined the debate, saying that the CM and the speaker could not ensure implementation of the decision taken in the speaker’s chamber during the previous session to end the stalemate caused by the three MLAs’ action and their subsequent suspension.

In response, Kanwar Pal said the Congress members had not kept their word. Then, Hooda said he was in agreement that copies of governor’s address should not be torn. “If we get into a discussion, we will have to go into why it happened,” he said. The two sides kept arguing till the time Independent legislator Jai Prakash urged them to finish the whole thing by terminating the members’ suspension. The members, including those from the Congress, agreed that tearing the governor’s address was not the right thing to do and a decision was taken to end the suspension. The House was adjourned thereafter.