Mumbai: Two assembly sessions were in progress at Mumbai’s Vidhan Bhavan Tuesday. Both had microphones, a presiding table, a live webcast and discussions on current issues. Both were covered by the media.
There was one difference, though. One was formal and the other was not. One was inside the House, attended by legislators of the three parties that form Maharashtra’s ruling MVA government, while the other one was outside — on the steps of the edifice, organised and attended by legislators of the opposition BJP.
The BJP, which decided to boycott the assembly session, held this parallel version as a mark of protest against the suspension of 12 of its MLAs for a year.
The 12 MLAs were suspended Monday, the first day of the two-day monsoon session of the assembly, for allegedly misbehaving with the presiding officer, Shiv Sena’s Bhaskar Jadhav, in the Speaker’s chamber.
Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis, in his initial remarks to the parallel assembly, said, “The way this government is functioning, if we raise our voice to highlight the issues of farmers, students, OBCs, Marathas and others, MLAs are being suspended. MLAs are being suspended on the basis of lies being woven from the chair. So, in this assembly session, I am tabling a proposal to condemn this government.”
Addressing a dummy presiding officer for the parallel assembly, Fadnavis requested him to allow a discussion on the proposal, following which opposition legislators, including Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Jaykumar Rawal and Haribhau Bagade, took the microphone turn by turn to highlight the MVA government’s failures in various sectors.
The MVA government, under Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, comprises the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress.
MLAs belonging to the ruling parties were upset, in particular, by the use of microphones in the parallel session. Protesting and raising slogans on the steps of the Vidhan Bhavan has been a feature of almost every assembly session in the state. However, parties have never used public address systems.
According to the MLAs, using a public address system while a formal assembly session is underway amounts to disrespecting the proceedings of the House.
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‘Insult to the assembly’
Inside the assembly, where the formal session was in progress, members of the ruling parties, including Bhaskar Jadhav, Nawab Malik, Jayant Patil, Nana Patole, Prithviraj Chavan, took strong objection to the form of demonstration chosen by the BJP MLAs and their use of microphones in their protests.
Many demanded that the parallel session be stopped, the equipment seized, the MLAs involved be suspended and action be taken against those government employees who allowed such a session to happen.
Speaking inside the legislative assembly, NCP Minister Jayant Patil, also state NCP chief, said, “We have also sat on the steps, raised slogans, but none of us have ever dared to use microphones. Strict action should be taken against the MLAs who used microphones outside the assembly.”
Similarly, Congress MLA Prithviraj Chavan, a former chief minister, said, “This is a major disrespect to the assembly. We should promptly seize all the equipment, stop the parallel session and take action.”
Following the complaints by MLAs, the presiding officer of the assembly immediately ordered that the microphones of the protesting BJP MLAs be taken away.
‘Govt imposing emergency in Maharashtra’
The chaos outside Vidhan Bhavan worsened after marshals at the state legislature arrived to take the microphones of the parallel session away.
Addressing the media, Fadnavis said, “The ruling parties have written a black chapter and started the process of imposing an emergency in Maharashtra. We were peacefully holding a demonstration, but the way they (the ruling parties) sent marshals to seize our microphones, disperse the journalists present and snatch their cameras, this was in a way a death of democracy.”
“We will continue with our parallel session, but, if they drive away reporters, we will go to the press room and hold our assembly there. In democracy, we are one pillar and so are you. If this Thackeray government is going to lock both these pillars then you and us will have to rise.”
(Edited by Priyanjali Mitra)
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