The Opposition Congress in Rajasthan boycotted the proceedings in the state assembly on Tuesday and held a dharna at the gate of the assembly premises protesting against the remark on late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the subsequent suspension of six of the party MLAs.
This forced Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani to conduct the proceedings in the House in a one-sided manner in the absence of the 66-member principal opposition group.
State Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Avinash Gehlot while responding to a question from Rafeeq Khan(Congress) on Friday had referred Indira Gandhi as “Aapki Dadi (opposition’s Grandma) and this comment brought the opposition on their feet as the Congress termed it as unparliamentary and against the decorum and the established conventions of the House.
The party state president and suspended party MLA Govind Singh Dotasara told reporters at the dharna site at the assembly gate that ”we will boycott the assembly proceedings to hold dharna here until our demands of expunging the comment and the apology from the Minister Gehlot for the objectionable remarks, are not conceded to”.
As the assembly proceedings commenced at 1100 hrs on Tuesday, Congress MLAs gathered at the assembly gate and started to enter the premises, however, the marshals/security staff deployed at the gate stopped the suspended members from entering. They were briefly seen in a scuffle with the security personnel.
Leader of the opposition Tika Ram Julie and Dotasara announced that either all their 66 members will go to attend the House or no one will go.
Then the opposition MLAs moved to the lawns of the nearby Vidhayak Niwas to hold a parley about the strategy. The meeting endorsed yesterday’s decision to boycott the assembly proceedings until their demands were conceded to.
From Vidhayak Niwas, the Opposition MLAs returned to the assembly gate and sat on dharna. Former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Ex-Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, PCC chief Dotasara, LoP Julie, and several former ministers participated in the dharna.
Talking to the media at the assembly gate ex-CM Gehlot said – “The effort made by all concerned on Monday for resolving the situation was sufficient for breaking the deadlock. Had the government not gone strictly by the words (from Dotasara), the impasse could have been resolved yesterday itself”.
Rigid dogmatic-minded approach should have not been adopted, he said, adding that Dotasara had regretted the entire course of events that should have been deemed as enough for resolving the situation.
Gehlot said, “The government is virtually provoking the opposition for the ruckus, they are not keen on having a good debate in the House, I have never experienced such a situation”.
He indicated that Dotasara could be persuaded to apologise for climbing the Speaker’s dias during Friday’s ruckus.