13 party members detained during protest outside House
CHANDIGARH: As many as 13 of the total 15 Congress MLAs in Haryana were detained by the police while they were staging a demonstration against the BJP government in front of the state assembly on Tuesday morning.
They started the demonstration minutes before 10am as several MLAs of BJP and INLD had begun to reach assembly for the ongoing budget session. The Congress members had covered their mouths with black scarves and were carrying placards, with slogans against the BJP government for its failure to check large-scale violence during the recent Jat stir, farmers’ plight and also against the suspension of Congress MLAs.
They protested the suspension of all the Congress MLAs till March 18 and suspension of three of them for six months by the assembly speaker.
The agitating MLAs were detained by the police within minutes, which later let them off after taking them to Sector 3 police station.
Except former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kaithal MLA Randeep Singh Surjewala, all the Congress MLAs, including Congress legislature party leader Kiran Choudhry, for mer speaker Kuldeep Sharma, Karan Singh Dalal, Anand Singh Dangi, Geeta Bukkal, Jagbir Singh Malik, Jai Tirath, Jaiveer Singh, Lalit Nagar, Raghubir Kadiyan and Shakuntla Khattak were present at the protest.
Later while interacting with newspersons, Choudhry condemned the BJP government for suspension of the MLAs which she held was “unconstitutional”.
She added that the BJP government had set a wrong precedent by suspending three MLAs for six months thus “stifling the voice of the Congress MLAs who rose their voice against the failure of the state government to check the large-scale violence in the state during the recent Jat agitation, besides the SYL issue.
Stating that the Congress MLAs would continue to raise the voice of people, Kuldeep Sharma said the government had resorted to suspension as it was scared of facing the opposition which questioned it for its failures during the Jat stir and on the SYL issue.