Truce prevails after initial pandemonium

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, December 1

Truce prevailed in the House after initial pandemonium today.

As the session began Leader of the Opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal got up and said the BJP had applied for permission to hold a political rally at Zorawar Singh Stadium about 10 days ago. The permission was given to the party to hold rally on November 28.

However, suddenly the permission was cancelled by the district administration yesterday. It is an emergency-like situation in which the main opposition party was not even allowed to hold a rally, Dhumal said.

The Chief Minister, while responding Dhumal’s statement, said a decision was taken last year against allowing any political rally in Zorawar Singh Stadium during the session days. “This was done as the loudspeakers used in the rally disturbed the members of the House. However, since the permission was now given to the BJP to hold rally in Zorawar Singh Stadium, I shall ask the administration to allow the rally there,” he said.

After this Ravinder Ravi, BJP MLA from Dehra, demanded that the discussion on the notice given by him yesterday should take place before Question Hour. Ravi had given a notice that the House should debate about the impact on development of the state due to the cases registered against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

The Speaker said the notice had been sent to the government for response and discussion on it could not be allowed.

This led to heated exchanges between the ruling and Opposition benches. The Leader of Opposition also objected that when the Congress MLAs were speaking, the mikes in the house were switched on, when the BJP MLAs were speaking, the mikes were switched off.

The Chief Minister also tried to intervene and said the government was ready for any kind of debate on development of the state.

Congress MLAs also got up from their seats and demanded that Question Hour should continue. They also raised slogans “Virbhadra Singh sai jo takrai ga, choor choor ho jaiga”. Amid this pandemonium, Speaker BBL Butail adjourned the House for 10 minutes.

During the adjournment, after the Speaker called a meeting of the Leader of the Opposition, other members of the ruling party and Opposition MLAs, a truce was reached.

The Speaker accepted the demand of the BJP to hold a discussion in the House on the notice issued by Ravinder Ravi. The discussed had been scheduled on December 4, the last day of the session.

Thereafter, the BJP members participated in the proceedings of the House. After the session, Leader of the Opposition PK Dhumal said the government agreed to both of their demands.

“They have agreed to hold a discussion on our notice and agreed to give us permission for holding a rally at Zorawar stadium. Due to it, the members of the BJP have agreed to participate in the proceeding of the House,” he said.