It's a stigma over the pride history of Gujarat assembly, house condemns the incident of blow

Gujarat assembly including the speaker, members of ruling party and opposition condemned the incident of blow in assembly occurred on Wednesday. The house remained inactive for more than two and half hours and then met again after the incident, all the members held the incident as a stigma on the graceful history of 58 years Gujarat assembly. However, members of both the parties did not come to an agreement over the punishment to the three Congress members.

Unruly scenes were created in Gujarat assembly on Wednesday when members from both the parties beat each other with slaps, fisticuffs, kicks and abusive words. The exchange of heated arguments provoked some members and that resulted in a physical assault. The speaker adjourned the house for ten minutes but then did not met till two and half hours. When the house met, the motion for suspension of three members was brought by Dy CM Nitin Patel.

The deputy speaker said that the incident was unfortunate and the members should be punished accordingly so as no any member in future dare to indulge in such lowly activity. His proposal was supported by senior minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama who said that with the deep sorrow he supported the motion to set example among the members and future law makers.

The leader of opposition Paresh Dhanani and deputy leader Shailesh Parmar also insisted that the members who created situation by provoking Congress members also should be punished equally. They named BJP members Jagdish Panchal and Harsh Sanghvi for suspension, but the ruling party objected the same.

Ministers Ishwar Parmar, Pradipsinh Jadeja, members from BJP Jagdish Panchal, Harsh Sanghvi, Dr and Nimaben Acharya also expressed their opinion in house, whereas senior members from opposition Niranjan Patel and Punja Vansh also spoke on the issue. The speaker, before giving ruling on the motion, narrated entire incident in verbatim from the records of the assembly and said that the Congress members indulged into violence and they showed same attitude from very first day of the session of assembly.

Speaker said, "Attitude of both the members Dudhat and Der has been so aggressive and disruptive to the proceedings of the house. I have given them many warnings in the past days but no effect was seen of my suggestions or reprimands over them. Dudhat came with the aggression that would have killed, if the assault would not be made failed by other members. I have assessed the video footages and that clearly showed that the members were at fault. Opposition members should have come to me in the interval when house was adjourned but they addressed media against me."

During the interval, leader of opposition Paresh Dhanani blamed against ruling party members and especially the ministers. Dhanani, addressing the media persons said, "The ruling party members and members of ministry wished that the motion of no confidence against speaker that we brought a few days later come for debate in house. We had expressed our different concerns including the behaviour of BJP members and minister before the speaker in past and speaker assured us to protect our rights. We had adopted the soft approach and had also instructed our members to maintain calm in house, even if BJP members provoke them. Today, BJP members Jagdish Panchal and Harsh Sanghvi used abusive words against mother, sister and daughters at our members and that ensured the incident. Speaker also should have given his opinion on merit base."

Rajendra Trivedi, Speaker

Today, the behaviour they showed was shameful and intolerable. This cannot be pardoned and example should be set so that the grace of assembly, where members gather to form the law, is maintained. I will not forget this incident. Members who show disrespect for the house and misbehave on the floor should be taught lesson. The members descended at the lower level as hooligans and that pains a lot to me.

Nitin Patel, Deputy Chief Minister

The assembly is the likened to the temple as it is also considered as a sacred place. The entire community saw this incident on television and would read on the same tomorrow in newspapers. This will create a bad impression of the reach tradition of Gujarat assembly. All the people are condemning the incident and the shameful act of some persons. They should be punished for this act so that they do not repeat this again.

Paresh Dhanani, LoP

The members of Congress are young and first timers so that they might not know the tradition of the house but BJP members are senior and they were provoking our members by BJP members. If the house wishes to prevent such incident happening again, the punishment should be equal on both the side. The justice can be served when the actions are taken against all who are responsible. I also agree that the grace of house endangered by such act.

Pradipsinh Jadeja, MoS for home

The incident was so disturbing. When the session starts, I bowed down to the floor of this house on the advice of one senior member of Congress and I also do believe it deeply. My beliefs are connected to the sanctity of the house. When the sanctity comes to danger by such members, it disturbed me a lot.

Niranjan Patel, Cong member

To punish the member for their act is right but this would snatch their right to raise the issues of their concerned territories in the house. This will again prevent people’s issues to be reflected in the house so the house should consider for lighter the punishment