HOUSE OF SHAME

Thanks to Mamata Banerjee

 

 

Trinamool, Left MLAs In Unprecedented Assembly Fistfight

HOUSE OF SHAME

Four MLAs Hurt; 3 CPM Members Suspended

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata: Bengal’s lawmakers dragged the assembly down to the gully pits on Tuesday, choosing fists and cuss words when a debate was denied. In the bedlam in the well of the House, legislators punched each other and a woman CPM MLA was “pulled by the hair” and allegedly “lifted to the treasury benches” by male MLAs.
    Two women MLAs from CPM and Trinamool Congress were taken to the hospital and a CPM legislator was also hospitalized for head injuries. Speaker Biman Banerjee suspended three CPM MLAs — Nazmul Haque, Susanta Besra and Amjad Hossain — for the rest of the session, triggering cries of bias from the opposition.
    The dishonour to the house surpasses all precedence in the Bengal assembly. It was worse than the unruly scenes in the Sixties where Left legislators hurled tomatoes and eggs at the chair and even threw shoes at Governor Dharamvira. But never had members of the treasury benches participated in the bedlam so enthusiastically as newly crowned minister Becharam Manna and deputy Speaker Sonali Guha. Their seniors Firhad Hakim, Partha Chatterjee and Subrata Mukherjee tried to defuse the tension but were no match for the gung-go greenhorns in the treasury benches.
    Chief minister Mamata Banerjee was not present in the House on Tuesday.
    Trouble broke out soon after the Speaker ruled out discussion on the Left Front’s adjournment notice on chit funds. When the notice was being read out in the House, Opposition leader Surjya Kanta Mishra protested that it had been “severely edited”. Furious Left Front members rushed to the Speaker’s podium and surrounded it, shouting slogans, but he ignored them and moved on to the mention cases. Security personnel rushed to throw a cordon around the Speaker. A number of Trinamool legislators — including some ministers — also ran to the well of the House to shield Banerjee.
    Soon, women legislators also got involved in the melee. A scuffle ensued, and a few legislators fell. The Speaker adjourned the House and left.
    Worse was in store. When Banerjee gave a ruling on the bedlam and suspended the three CPM MLAs for disorderly conduct (using foul language against the Speaker, smashing his microphone and tearing papers on his table), parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee lauded him for acting firm against the CPM’s “goonda raj”. However, Congress leader Manas Bhunia stood up and blamed the ruling party for sparking the violence. The Speaker’s ruling violates the principle of natural justice, Bhunia said. CPM MLAs were angry that their comrades were not given a chance to defend themselves. But Partha Chatterjee said the rules of procedure (Section 347, 348) don’t give scope for self-defence. Speaker was a mute spectator: Left
    Left Front members then rushed the Speaker’s chair, led by Forward Bloc MLA Paresh Adhikary. Deputy Speaker Sonali Guha rose from her chair and started abusing and threatening CPM’s Susanta Besra. To make matters worse, Trinamool MLA Mahamuda Begum chased CPM’s Deblina Hembram and pulled her by the hair. Some male Trinamool MLAs allegedly joined Mahamuda and dragged Debalina to the treasury benches. “Mahamuda Begum pulled me by the hair. Others abused me, and some Trinamool members, including ministers, lifted me and took me to the treasury benches,” Debalina alleged. Mahamuda complained of chest pain and was taken to SSKM Hospital. Trinamool’s Pulak Roy is also among the injured.
    The Left came down heavily on the ruling party. “The Speaker was a mute spectator to the Trinamool violence. He watched how Gouranga Chatterjee was beaten up by members of the treasury benches even as he lay helpless. Instead, the Speaker suspended three CPM MLAs without giving them a chance to defend themselves,” said opposition leader Surjya Kanta Mishra.
    Congress members initially stayed away from the bedlam, but later blamed Trinamool for the “insecurity of members”. The Congress later called on the governor. “The ruling party should be more tolerant of the opposition,” Bhunia said. “During its regime, CPM had encouraged chit funds, but we find no change in the attitude of the present government. According to RBI rules, states have the responsibility of curbing activities of chit funds.”

Manas Bhunia and other Congress MLAs protest against the Assembly turmoil at Raj Bhavan