The story of the last week played out again in the state assembly on Monday. The only difference was that instead of shouting slogans, the Congress MLAs wore black scarves printed with slogans seeking dismissal of two BJP MLAs in the ‘porngate’ scandal. The House was adjourned thrice over the issue, even as the entire Opposition was suspended for the fourth day in a row.
As the House convened at noon, Opposition MLAs arrived in the House wearing scarves with the slogan Nagna Tasveer Jonara Ne Dismiss Karo (Dismiss MLAs who watched porn). Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Pradipsinh Jadeja raised a point of order saying that such protests could not be allowed in the House.
The Opposition argued that a point of order could not be raised during Question Hour, but the Speaker Ganpat Vasava said that protests could not be permitted in the House. He adjourned the House just four minutes into the session.
The Congress members arrived in the House wearing the same scarves, which led Jadeja to again raise objection to it. The Opposition on the other hand said that the point of order could have waited till the end of Question Hour. After hearing members from both sides, the Speaker ruled that such protests amounted to contempt of the House. He reprimanded Congress MLAs before once again adjourning the House for one hour.
The scene was repeated when the House met again at 2:20 pm. This time, Jadeja said that in spite of the Speaker’s directions, the Congress MLAs were continuing their protest, and sought their ‘naming’. The Speaker named the Opposition MLAs who were wearing the scarves.Within moments, Jadeja moved a motion for suspension of Congress MLAs, which was seconded by BJP chief whip Pankaj Desai. The Speaker suspended all Congress MLAs after the motion was passed by a voice vote. He asked the marshals to remove Congress MLAs from the House, and also adjourned the House once more. When the House convened again following the break, parliamentary affairs minister Dileep Sanghani raised a point of order about the mock assembly organised by Congress MLAs after their suspension from the House on Friday.
This was the fourth consecutive day when the entire Opposition was suspended from the House.
