The proceedings of the Uttarakhand Assembly were disrupted on Friday due to chaos over the hill-plain divide, leading to a heated face-off between the opposition and state finance minister Premchand Agarwal.
Agarwal alleged in the House that he was being targeted because of his surname, “Agarwal.”
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The uproar began when Congress MLA from Dwarahat, Madan Singh Bisht, took a dig at Agarwal’s statement from the previous day, alleging that the minister was inebriated while sitting in the Assembly and had made disparaging remarks against people from the hills.
The incident occurred while Agarwal was responding to a question posed by Congress MLA from Almora, Manoj Tiwari, regarding alleged corruption in district development authorities across the state.
As Congress MLAs, led by Leader of the Opposition Yashpal Arya, objected and accused the minister of evading the question, Bisht made a sarcastic remark in a low tone: “Now everyone here is inebriated. People from the hills are demeaned.”
This enraged the minister, who appealed to Speaker Ritu Khanduri and opposition leaders to calm the Congress legislator, accusing him of attempting to create a divide between the hill and plain regions.
However, Bisht retorted, “You, too, have made allegations against me. You spoke against the people belonging to the hills.”
In response to Bisht’s accusations, a BJP MLA reminded Arya and senior Congress leader Pritam Singh that they had assured the House they would pacify Bisht, but no action seemed to have been taken.
“Where is he taking this argument? Is it fair to claim that I spoke against people from the hills? To what extent will you degrade the dignity of this House? Did we fight for a separate hill state to create a hill-plain divide? If I have done something wrong, let’s sit together, and I will apologize,” Agarwal stated.
He further added, “I am being targeted because of my surname. Why are you trying to divide the state along hill-plain lines?”
Reacting to Agarwal’s remarks, Arya, Pritam Singh, and Congress MLA Anupama Rawat defended Bisht, saying, “He was offended by the minister’s remarks from the previous day. He felt insulted, and his comment was a reaction to that.”
Arya’s statement triggered further chaos in the House, with other opposition legislators joining the uproar. The disorder continued for a few minutes before Speaker Ritu Khanduri intervened.
“What kind of behaviour is this? The entire country, and even people from other nations, are watching you. We are receiving comments from outside India before they even reach us within the country. We are all from Uttarakhand—not hill or plain people,” said Khanduri.
“We all fought together for Uttarakhand. Such divisive remarks are unfortunate in this House, which is a temple of democracy. We should not repeat such statements. These remarks will be expunged from the proceedings,” Khanduri added.
