Rowdy scenes were witnessed outside Himachal Pradesh Assembly in Shimla on Friday after the Opposition, Congress, MLAs blocked Governor Bandaru Dattatreya’s vehicle as he was about to leave the complex following his address on the first day of the budget session.
Five Congress MLAs, including Leader of the Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri, were suspended for the rest of the session till March 20. An FIR has been registered against them.
Inside the House, while the Governor was delivering his address, the Opposition members, led by Mr. Agnihotri, said the address did not mention any pivotal issues such as the farmers’ concerns on Centre’s farm laws, spiralling prices and unemployment. As they continued shouting slogans, the Governor ended his speech saying it should be considered as read.
The Congress MLAs then staged a walkout and started a sit-in. When the Governor was about to leave, they surrounded his vehicle demanding that he should tell why did he not finish his speech.
“The Governor was set to leave from the Speaker’s gate where the Congress MLAs sat on a dharna. I, along with Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and other Ministers, was escorting the Governor to his vehicle. We requested them (Congress MLAs) to clear the way, but they surrounded the vehicle and started pounding it, and manhandled the marshalls. This is an unfortunate day in the democracy,” Speaker Vipin Parmar told The Hindu.
FIR lodged
“After this, the House was again convened. A resolution was passed and five Congress MLAs — Mukesh Agnihotri, Harsh Varhan Chauhan, Vinay Kumar, Satpal Raizada and Sunder Singh Thakur — were suspended for the rest of the session,” he said.
The Congress MLAs alleged that they were pushed and manhandled by the BJP members. “There was no manhandling of the Governor, instead our MLAs were manhandled by the BJP members as they pushed us,” Mr. Agnihotri told The Hindu.
