Stormy start to House session
SP, BSP and Cong join hands to protest ‘poor’ law and order
LUCKNOW: The maiden session of the newly-elected UP assembly opened on Monday amid noisy protests by the opposition parties over, what they termed as, the “worsening law and order situation” in the state and governor Ram Naik being bombarded with paper balls during his address.
This was the first assembly session of the Yogi Adityanath government that came to power in March. It was also the first time that proceedings of the House were being aired live on Doordarshan.
The proceedings saw the opposition parties -- SP, BSP and Congress -- joining hands to protest the alleged poor law and order and also rake up the farmers’ issues. Despite the vociferous protests and paper ball attack, the governor continued to read out his address for nearly 35 minutes before the joint sitting of the state legislature here.
The chief minister, his council of ministers and BJP members were present in the House when members of the main opposition party -- Samajwadi Party -- wearing red caps entered the well of the house. They displayed placards and banners, with slogans written on them, after the governor arrived and the national anthem was played, at 11 am.
Soon, BSP and Congress members joined them. They too displayed placards and banners and many of them stood on benches while protesting. The Vidhan Sabha marshals had to use covers of files to deflect the paper missiles targeting the governor.
Former CM Akhilesh Yadav and SP leaders Shivpal Yadav were present in the house as the opposition members blew whistles and shouted slogans. At one point the governor paused for a moment and said: “UP is looking at you, what you are doing here.”
“Goonda and mafia are running the government; waive loans of farmers completely; the Yogi government is anti-farmer,” were some of the slogans displayed on the placards.
A BSP placard read “police pit rahi thane me, Yogi tere zamane me” (Cops are being beaten up in Yogi’s regime), while Congress slogans accused the government of focusing on issues such as slaughter houses and triple talaq, while ignoring law and order.
BJP members added to the din, thumping their desks loudly whenever the governor lauded the government.
The governor tried to read out his complete address, braving the paper missiles and slogan shouting for nearly 35 minutes, but he had to, apparently, leave out some of the 101-page speech.
The governor then shouted ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Vande Matram’ before leaving the house.
Speaker Hridaya Narain Dixit could be heard proposing a vote of thanks for his address.
State minister Siddharth Nath Singh later accused the opposition of “hooliganism”. “The way in which SP members jumped atop tables and threw paper balls is condemnable. They made a mockery of democracy,” he told reporters.