Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, March 28: The opposition BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress members of the West Bengal Assembly came to blows against each other in the well of the House on Monday after sloganeering and fisticuffs with the house marshals leading to the suspension of five opposition members including the leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari and the BJP legislature party chief whip Manoj Tigga for the remainder of the current budget session.
It was the first time after about a decade when the then TMC and the ruling CPM members had clashed inside the House that the West Bengal assembly witnessed such unruly scenes inside the House.
Just as the House session began on Monday, the BJP members rushed into the well of the House and started shouting slogans demanding the resignation of the chief minister Mamata Banerjee on the Birbhum violence last week in which eight people, mostly women and children, were locked in a house and burnt alive in Bogtui village following the murder of a TMC local leader allegedly by the rival group.
The BJP leaders said they also wanted a discussion on the incident in the House but the TMC government did not grant them permission. Speaker Biman Banerjee repeatedly requested opposition MLAs to take their seats but they continued their protest.
As the house security staff tried to remove the slogan-shouting BJP members from the well of the House and near the Speaker’s podium, the protesting BJP members entered into a scuffle with the staff refusing to vacate the well.
After the BJP – Staff scuffle went on for about half an hour, some TMC members joined in reportedly to help the security staff in removing the protesting opposition members when the scuffle between the members of the two political parties started.
Several members of the House were injured in the exchange of blows and both the BJP and the TMC members accused each other of hooliganism leading to physical injuries to MLAs. Adhikari alleged that their MLAs were beaten up inside the House and as a result, several leaders, including Tigga and MLA Narahari Mahato, were injured. Even women MLAs like Chandana Bauri were attacked, claimed Adhikari.
The TMC also alleged that opposition MLAs attacked women security personnel of the Assembly and damaged official documents. Trinamool MLA Asit Majumdar broke his nose after getting involved in the clash and was taken to the SSKM Hospital with the bleeding nose. TMC MLA and Minister Firhad Hakim said every day the BJP MLAs were indulging in hooliganism.
Later in the day, the Speaker described the developments as “unwarranted and unfortunate” and said “he felt very sad at the developments.” “The way they [BJP legislators] attacked women guards is very unfortunate. It would have been better had the incident not occurred,” the Speaker said.
Other than Adhikari and Tigga, three MLAs–Shankar Ghosh, Narahari Mahato, and Dipak Burman–were also suspended after the chaotic scenes in the Assembly. Adhikari alleged, “We were illegally suspended.”
Following the incident, Bengal BJP MPs will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi n New Delhi on Wednesday morning to demand imposition of the president’s rule in the state on the ground of “collapse” of the law and order situation in West Bengal, the BJP sources said.
Commenting on the suspension, Adhikari said everyone in the House was aware of his role and had he not intervened things would have turned worse. The Nandigram MLA said that if he was not allowed to speak in the House, he would continue to raise his voice outside the House.
Earlier at the start of the Budget Session, two BJP MLAs (Mihir Goswami and Sudip Mukherjee) were suspended while protesting during Governor’s address.
