PIONEER NEWS SERVICE | Dehradun
Emboldened by the resignation of cabinet minister Prem Chand Aggarwal, the Uttarakhand Congress has now trained its guns on the Vidhan Sabha speaker Ritu Khanduri Bhushan and the Bharatiya Janata Party State president Mahendra Bhatt.
Addressing media persons at the headquarters of the State Congress on Friday, the leader of opposition in Vidhan Sabha Yashpal Arya said that the use of abusive language by the Parliamentary Affairs minister inside the house was unprecedented and shocking. He said that the Speaker is the guardian of the house during Vidhan Sabha session and she should have immediately intervened when the minister was speaking and should have expunged the derogatory comment from the record of the proceedings. Arya said that both speaker and leader of the house who was also present in the house were only listeners when Aggarwal was insulting the people. He said that when the first time MLA Lakhpat Butola tried to put his views on the issue, the behaviour of the speaker was incomprehensible and objectionable.
He said that the BJP State president Bhatt used the word Sadak Chaap for the agitators who demonstrated in Gairsain. Arya said that Bhatt should explain the meaning of Sadak- Chaap. He said that action should also be taken against the speaker and Bhatt. Taking exception to the silence of senior leaders of BJP on the issue, the LoP said that it shows that the entire episode which occurred inside Vidhan Sabha was a deliberate ploy of BJP. The BJP leadership wants to divide the State by fanning the divisive politics of Pahad and Maidan.
Former speaker Gobind Singh Kunjwal said that speaker is a constitutional post and one holding the chair should act above the party lines. He said that the current speaker takes part in the membership campaign of BJP and attends the programmes of the party. Kunjwal said that such activities are against the prestige of the chair she is holding. He also questioned the behaviour of the speaker when she reprimanded MLA Butola when he objected to the abusive language used by minister Aggarwal.
