Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta on Sunday hit out at Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda for his remark “voice of democracy strangled” during the recently concluded Assembly session.
The monsoon session concluded on November 6, after which Mr. Hooda had said the “voice of the Opposition was ignored as the Congress’ amendment on the agricultural laws was not accepted in the proceedings of the House”.
Mr. Gupta said it was an ‘irresponsible’ remark and that the proceedings were conducted in accordance with the rules.
“Every party and public representative has a right to speak in the House, but for this it is necessary to adhere to the rules. If the Congress was to come up with a resolution against the three agriculture Acts, it was important to adhere to the rules. But the Congress failed to do so,” said Mr. Gupta.
He said several experienced Congress leaders are aware that any non-government resolution or private member bill should be introduced 15 days prior to the session. “The Congress should have done within a certain time period. Besides, the tenor of the language of their resolution was not in sync with the parliamentary conduct. Thus, the legal representative consent could not be obtained as it failed to meet the legislative criteria,” said Mr. Gupta.
Mr. Gupta said the Congress leaders had first acted contrary to the House decorum and then made pessimistic and inappropriate statements in the media. “A serious discussion was expected from senior leaders on such an important subject. However, the reasons for their non-participation in the discussion are still unknown,” he said.
Unruly scenes were witnessed in the Assembly on November 6 as soon as Chief Minister Manohar Lal proposed a resolution thanking the Centre for introducing reforms in the agriculture sector. Congress MLAs insisted on voting on the resolution before a discussion and stormed the well of the House. The House was adjourned several times before the Speaker ‘named’ them for the remainder part of the session.
