Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators spent the night under the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the campus of the Odisha State Assembly protesting the suspension of three of their colleagues.
BJP MLAs were handed a suspension after shoes were hurled at Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro during the ruckus in the State Assembly on Saturday.
Pramila Mallick, the State government’s chief whip, had alleged that BJP MLAs Bishnu Charan Sethi and Jai Narayan Mishra had thrown shoes at the Chair. Subsequently, the Speaker, after going through CCTV camera footage pronounced the verdict of a suspension.
BJP MLAs said they had not been given the opportunity to present their views. The Budget session of the Assembly was ended abruptly, five days before its scheduled conclusion.
Mr. Patro tried to convince BJP MLAs not to sleep on the campus but they stuck to their stand. Bijay Pal Singh Tomar, co-in-charge of the Odisha BJP’s affairs, went to the Assembly campus and requested them to end the protest.
“Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who is leader of the House, has not attended the House for a single day. The CM, however, toured several districts for his political work. But we were not allowed to speak in the Assembly. We had to spend whole night under the sky protesting arrogance of the Treasury Bench,” said Pradipta Naik, Leader of Opposition, on Sunday.
“The government passed Bills undemocratically through the Speaker. I, being Leader of the Opposition, raised my hand to speak, [but] I was overlooked. When the government suppressed all democratic norms on strength of their majority, the Opposition parties were left with the only option, which was protest,” said Mr. Naik.
Mr. Mishra, a senior BJP MLA, said the Assembly was not functioning in the way it should have functioned. “All democratic norms have been trampled in the House. The Speaker failed to protect the rights of Opposition MLAs. We should have been allowed to speak. Bills should not have been passed without discussion.”
BJP MLAs intend to meet Governor Ganeshi Lal and request him to not to give his assent to the Bills passed without discussion.
