Kolkata: The first day of West Bengal Legislative Assembly’s Budget session witnessed unruly scenes Wednesday as BJP MLAs obstructed the maiden address of Governor C.V. Ananda Bose by tearing papers and staging a walkout after storming into the Well of the House.
The BJP lawmakers shouted “shame shame” while pointing fingers at the governor during his speech. They also erupted into “Jai Sri Ram” slogans after he finished reading the obituaries. Minutes later, the BJP MLAs stood up and started tearing papers and threw them up in the air.
Although the opposition BJP had carried out protests during the tenure of previous governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, this was the first time the party MLAs walked out during a governor’s speech in West Bengal.
Leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari gave a detailed rebuttal to the governor’s speech in the Assembly.
Later speaking to the media, Adhikari said “the governor is bringing shame to Bengal”.
“We thought the governor would skip lines that claimed the good work done by this state government. But unlike his predecessor who had a spine, he did not stop and continued to read the state-written speech. BJP will protest. The governor is bringing shame to Bengal. On February 10 and 13 we will keep our motion of thanks on the governor’s speech and state the facts,” he said.
Governor Bose delivered a bold first speech, saying his government will deal with “inimical forces of divisiveness, hatred and intolerance with a firm hand”.
“The citizens of the state have repeatedly placed their full confidence in the uncompromising motivational thrust and the humane outlook of the government. My government will deal with all inimical forces of divisiveness, hatred and intolerance with a firm hand and defeat all kinds of negativity.”
Though the Trinamool Congress didn’t retaliate against the ruckus, it condemned the obstruction.
TMC Minister Firhad Hakim told ThePrint, “What the BJP did today was anti-national and unconstitutional. Never before has the Vidhan Sabha witnessed such unruly behaviour.”
However, such a ruckus isn’t new in the West Bengal Assembly. During last year’s Budget session, former governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was forced to read out only one line of the customary address on the first day of the session. Dhankhar was caught between the crossfire unleashed by BJP and TMC MLAs on the floor of the house.
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