Suspension of Congress MLAs in Guj goes to Privilege Committee

Gandhinagar, Mar 16: Gujarat Legislative Assembly today referred the issue of Leader of the Opposition Arjun Modhvadia's letter to Speaker Mangalbhai Patel, criticising the latter's decision to suspend six Congress MLAs in the House on March 9, which has been sent to the Privilege Committee.

Taking a serious note of the issue, the House referred the matter to the Commitee to decide whether the Congress leader's action amounted to breach of the privilege of the Speaker. The House also took serious note of the alleged leakage of a copy of the letter to the media by Mr Modhvadia.

The proposal to refer the issue to the Privilege Committee was moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ashok Bhatt under rule no 250 of the House, which was later supported by the ruling party members.

Mr Bhatt stated that Mr Modhvadia's alleged remarks describing the Speaker's action as ''non-peforming his duty'' was also a breach of the privilege of the Speaker.

In his defence, Mr Modhvadia said his intention was neither to breach the privilege of the Speaker nor to make any derogatory remarks aginst the latter.

Mr Modhvadia further defended himself by stating that his action, was aimed at defending the Congress MLAs, which was his basic right and duty as the Leader of the Opposition. ''In the past too, there had been many instances of more serious nature, but were not referred to the Privilege Committee. Some of the issues were so serious that they could have prompted us to raise 'no confidence motion' against the Speaker, but we resisted from doing so in true spirit of the House,'' he said.

After hearing the defences, allegations and counter-allegations from both the Opposition and ruling party members, Mr Patel gave his ruling that the matter qualified for referralto the committee which was passed by the ruling party members.

On March 9, the House had, by voice vote, suspended six Congress MLAs from the rest of the budget session of the Assembly, for their ''unruly behaviour and using abusive language'' during question hour in the House.

The question was related to Government plots allotted for housing nomadic tribes being usurped by builders, following which members of both the Opposition and treasury benches traded abuses, prompting the Speaker to adjourn the House twice and subsequently move a resolution to suspend six Congress MLAs for their ''unruly behaviour.'' Subsequently, a delegation of Congress Legislative Party (CLP) met the Governor on March 10 and submitted a memorandum with a request to call Speaker Mangaldas Patel and Chief Minister Narendra Modi to verify the factual position. The Governor had assured the delegation that he would look into their demand.

UNI