Congress and INLD MLAs come to blows with shoes inside Haryana assembly

File photo of Congress MLA Karan Singh Dalal who has been suspended form the party | Facebook

Congress’ Karan Singh Dalal suspended for a year after altercation with Abhay Chautala over personal remarks.

Chandigarh: The Haryana assembly Tuesday witnessed an unprecedented fight between leader of opposition and Indian National Lok Dal MLA Abhay Chautala and Congress MLA Karan Singh Dalal leading to the latter’s suspension from the assembly for one year.

Chautala, however, got away with the House passing a condemnation resolution against him.

The two leaders hurled abuses at each other in the House and the high-pitched battle even led to the two removing their shoes at one point, with the intention to hit the other.

The marshals of the House were rushed in to control the situation after INLD MLAs came into the well of the House to support Chautala even as he and Dalal continued to threaten each other with a shoe each in their hands.

BJP MLAs on the treasury benches were seen backing Chautala as one opposition party slugged it out with the other.

The House was adjourned for 10 minutes after which Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu moved a proposal for Dalal’s suspension for breaching the decorum of the House, which was passed.

Former Congress chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda tried to salvage the situation asking the Speaker to give Dalal a chance to explain his position, but to no avail. He also offered an apology on Dalal’s behalf to no effect.

How it started 

The altercation began just after the Zero Hour when Dalal was speaking on an attention motion he had moved. He wanted to draw the attention of the House over the deletion of names of 25 lakh ration card holders in the state from the list of beneficiaries.

As he was speaking, BJP MLAs, led by cabinet minister O.P. Dhankar, objected to Dalal using a particular word (expunged later) to describe the state of Haryana under BJP’s rule. As the treasury benches were admonishing Dalal for his use of language, Chautala demanded that action be taken against him for breaching the decorum of the House.

Dalal then launched a personal attack on Chautala and his family members after which the two went hammer and tongs at each other. The commotion ended temporarily following action against Dalal. 

When the House resumed for the post-lunch session, the resolution against Chautala was passed.

 

Congress MLAs wanted to move a resolution for Chautala’s suspension for one year but it was disallowed by the Speaker. Protesting that the Speaker’s action against Dalal was in violation of the House rulebook, Congress MLAs boycotted the rest of the last day of the monsoon session.

What they claimed later

Talking to mediapersons before he left the House, Dalal said he used the word ‘kalankit (disgraced)’ for the state under BJP’s rule and it wasn’t un-parliamentary.

“The BJP clearly did not want me to highlight this issue. The government has without any reason removed lakhs from the BPL list,” said Dalal.

“Instead of giving a reply, they have taken action against me. The INLD too did not want me take up any pro-public issue which is why they disrupted the proceedings,” he added.

Hooda told mediapersons that the word was not demeaning to the House in any way and the Speaker should have looked more carefully at the rules before initiating action against Dalal.

“And if Dalal used un-parliamentary language and behaved inappropriately, what about Chautala? He too should have been suspended, using the same logic. The INLD and BJP are allies not opposing parties,” added Hooda.

He said the Congress will consider the option of approaching the courts against the Speaker’s action.

Chautala said he expected the Speaker to stop Dalal when he was hurling abuses at him. “But when the Speaker failed to take any action against Dalal, I could not tolerate the words Dalal used for Chaudhary Devi Lal (Chautala’s grandfather). I know how to defend the honour of my family and I did exactly that,” he said.