In Delhi House

few words, Gupta is the one-man army taking on the 65 MLAS of the ruling party every session — with the exception of Speaker Ram Niwas Goel and AAP’S rebel MLA Pankaj Pushkar.

In the four-day monsoon session that concluded Friday, Gupta and Pradhan staged a walkout every day. While Pradhan returned to the House a few times, Gupta stayed away.

On many occasions in past sessions and the latest, Gupta has had to shout when his microphone was switched off. “You cannot silence the Opposition,” he shouted on Friday, protesting at least four times that his microphone had been cut off.

On August 22, after Gupta got into an argument with AAP MLAS Nitin Tyagi and Amanatullah Khan, AAP MLAS started thumping their desks and shouting “pension chor (pension thief)”.

“You think you can target us because we are fewer in number?” Gupta shouted. Tyagi retorted: “If you are fewer in number, are we responsible? The people didn’t give you any votes.”

Of the BJP’S three-member Opposition, O P Sharma, who has had several run-ins with AAP MLAS and the Speaker, was suspended on March 31 for two sessions for allegedly making derogatory remarks against AAP legislator Alka Lamba.

On Friday, Sharma, who was present in Gupta’s office in the assembly premises, was asked to leave by security personnel. “If he wants to enter, he has to seek the Speaker’s permission. After he sought permission, he was allowed to stay in the Leader of Opposition’s office,” said Speaker Goel.

Pradhan usually refrains from trading political charges and joins Gupta on cue. When Gupta rose from his seat to leave the House on August 23, Goel said, “Arrey Pradhanji, aap toh ruk jayiye (you stay back).” In response, Pradhan smiled and followed Gupta out.

Then again, on Friday, when Gupta was about to ask a question, the Speaker warned him, “Please do not politicise this.” This prompted the BJP leader to claim that he was being discriminated against. Minutes later, Jain took on the BJP again: “When a snake puts its tongue out, you can see it has two tongues, not one. The BJP is not even ashamed of its U-turns.”

Then, it was the turn of AAP MLA Jarnail Singh, who referred to the BJP’S ‘chai pe charcha’ poll campaign and the controversy over gau-raksha, to say: “Chai, chai karte hain; gai, gai karte hain; aane do 2019, Delhi hi nahi, desh kahega inhe bye-bye karte hai (They keep saying tea, tea; cow, cow; let 2019 come, not only Delhi but the entire country will say bye-bye to them).” Speaker Goel intervened: “This would have sounded better had you said it in Punjabi.”

When contacted, Gupta said that he has been “fighting a lonely battle” in the assembly. “It feels like a mob attack. Like one man is surrounded by over 60 people. I have my colleague Jagdishji but he is of a simple nature. The burden of the opposition is, therefore, on my shoulders almost entirely,” Gupta told The Indian Express.

Speaker Goel, however, accused Gupta of politicising discussions, and said that he gives the Opposition more time than what they are entitled to. “The Opposition accuses the House of being unfair. Time is given to members to speak based on their party representation in the House. For three members, it should be less than 10 minutes but they always get more time. I have told Guptaji many times, shown him the rule book but he wants to politicise everything and hijack the discussion,” Goel said.

AAP chief Kejriwal had earlier cautioned that a “brute majority” may lead to hubris. In December, he warned his MLAS: “If any kind of hubris creeps into our language or behaviour, the people who reduced one party to three and the other to zero, can reduce us to three as well.”

But coming back to that verbal joust of two days ago, Mishra went on to call Gupta “Shurpanaka”, referring to the sister of Ravan whose nose was cut off by Laxman in the Ramayana. “Your nose, too, will be cut off in the same way,” said Mishra.

Mishra said he had submitted a factfindingreportonallegedirregularitiesindjb when Sheila Dikshit was chief minister of Delhi and claimed that the anti-corruption bureau, under the Centre, had taken no action. “They are waiting for Sheila Dikshit, saying ‘please grace us, oh mother, you are our guardian, our queen’,” said Mishra.

As Gupta repeatedly interrupted and accused the minister of diluting his question, Mishra quipped, “Arrey Guptaji, chup ho jao na, yaar (why don’t you be quiet, my friend).” When Gupta took exception to Mishra’s choice of words, Speaker Goel cut in: “The minister is right. If they can raid the Delhi Commission of Women, why can’t they arrest Sheila Dikshit?” The intervention was followed by thunderous applause — from the Treasury benches, of course.