Speaker convenes all-party meet to resolve deadlock

Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 30

Concerned over happenings in the state Assembly on August 28, Speaker B B L Butail has convened an all-party meeting to resolve the deadlock tomorrow, the last day of monsoon session.

Former Himachal BJP president Suresh Bharadwaj, who is also the chief whip of the BJP, has urged the Speaker to invite the Leader of the House (CM) and Leader of the Opposition also to the meeting. The efforts of the Speaker to bring about the truce would be fruitful only if both the Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition are also present in the meeting, Bharadwaj told media persons here.

The situation was similar at the beginning of the session but the all-party meeting called by the Speaker on August 20 on the eve of the session in which the CM and the Leader of the opposition were present helped in ironing out the differences and reducing the areas of conflict.

The session started on a peaceful note as the Chief Minister withdrew his reported remarks and also agreed to cancel the FIR against BJP MLA but the truce proved shortlived as tempers ran high.

Suresh Bharadwaj blamed Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for making offending and provocative remarks against the BJP leaders on the eve of the Vidhan Sabha session that led to “deadlock”.

He said that even before the commencement of the ongoing monsoon session, the Chief Minister had said that Assembly session would run “with or without opposition” and termed the statement as undemocratic, exposing his scant regard for the opposition.

Referring to last Friday’s incident (August 28) , he said that BJP MLA Govind Singh Thakur had raised point of order on Sanjauli College incident and even before the Speaker could respond, the Chief Minister got up and started speaking. Castigating the Chief Parliamentary Secretary for his remarks on Facebook against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “not sparing even the women”, Bharadwaj said that the BJP would explore the legal and other options to take action against the CPS.

“For the first time a Chief Minister tore papers given to him and threw it on the BJP state president when he handed over the printouts of derogatory statements written by a Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) about the Prime Minister and even women”, he said. It is the responsibility of the Leader of the House to ensure smooth running of the House but here the government is shying away from debate.

“Small and marginal farmers, whose fruit-laden trees had been axed, are a harassed lot and we wanted debate on the issue. We were keen to discuss corruption, smart city and others important issues but an atmosphere was created that forced us to stage a walkout”. Bharadwaj alleged.