Eighteen BJP MLAs were suspended from the Jharkhand Assembly until 2 p.m. on August 2 and removed by marshals after refusing to leave the House on Thursday.
Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto took action against the BJP members after they created ruckus in the House in protest against the eviction of opposition MLAs by marshals on the previous day and Chief Minister Hemant Soren's "refusal" to reply to their queries.
The House proceedings were scheduled to begin at 11 am on Thursday. The BJP legislators, however, trooped into the well ahead of the start of the session and raised slogans demanding resignation of the chief minister. They were also seen tearing some documents while protesting. Members of the ruling and opposition parties were seen exchanging heated arguments.
As the chaotic situation continued after the House assembled, Mahto suspended 18 of the 20 BJP legislators present. Since they refused to leave even after being suspended, he called marshals who removed those opposition members.
The Speaker said the Assembly Ethics Committee will probe the matter and submit a report to him within a week.
‘We Did Not Bomb The House’
BJP legislators told reporters outside the assembly that democracy was "murdered" by the Speaker at the behest of the JMM-led government in the state.
Leader of the Opposition Amar Kumar Bauri claimed that Thursday's act showed that the state government has turned into a dictator.
"We requested the government to reply to questions on issues related to the people. What happened is an attempt to suppress the voice of opposition MLAs," Bauri said.
The ruling JMM-Congress-RJD alliance added a black chapter to the history of the assembly, he claimed. When the House re-assembled at 12.30 pm, Bauri said this was the black day in democracy after the Emergency.
“We did not bomb the House like the British Parliament… We followed Bapu’s Ahimsa,“ he said, adding that 18 MLAs were suspended under government pressure.
He was referring to the 1929 incident when Bhagat Singh threw two low-intensity bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi to “make the deaf hear” and inspire fellow Indians to fight the British.
Bauri said, “We just demanded the CM’s reply on promises made by the JMM-led alliance when it came to power in 2019”. Bauri and Neelkanth Munda who were not suspended then staged a walkout.
(With PTI Inputs)
