Chaos outside Assembly as AAP MLAs barred from entering premises on Day 2

AAP MLAs were not allowed to enter the premises of the Delhi Vidhan Sabha for the second consecutive day on Friday owing to their suspension from the Assembly for allegedly creating ruckus during the L-G’s address.

Chaos unfolded outside the Delhi Assembly when LoP Atishi, along with pother MLAs, was subsequently stopped from entering the premises.

When they attempted to march towards the Rashtrapati Bhavan to submit a memorandum to the President, the Delhi Police barricaded the roads with buses and stopped them from moving ahead.

Atishi, in a letter to Speaker Vijender Gupta on Friday, alleged that the opposition MLAs were being unfairly targeted, arguing that while AAP members were punished for chanting “Jai Bhim”, BJP MLAs who chanted “Modi-Modi” during the L-G’s address faced no consequences.

“The BJP believes Narendra Modi is greater than Babasaheb Ambedkar and that India should not be governed by the Constitution drafted by him. The BJP and Modi are trying to impose a new authoritarian constitution,” Atishi said outside the Vidhan Sabha.

“The Delhi Police are not showing any written order for stopping us. The BJP wants people to believe that Modi is drafting a new Constitution. They want to erase Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution,” she said.

She has also written a letter to President Droupadi Murmu, seeking an appointment to discuss what she described as the “murder of democracy” in Delhi.

Responding to Atishi’s claims, the Speaker rejected the allegations of bias and accused the opposition of disrupting the proceedings of the House. He defended the decision to bar the suspended MLAs from the premises, citing Assembly Rule 277, which states that “A member who has been suspended from the service of the House shall be barred from entering the premises of the House and taking part in the proceedings of the House and committees”.

Gupta also criticised the opposition’s conduct, stating that disruptions had begun even before the L-G’s address. Referring to the Speaker’s election on February 24, he wrote, “It should have been a dignified process. Unfortunately, the process was marred by sloganeering and disruption by the opposition members. Despite this unbecoming conduct, I exercised restraint and did not take any disciplinary action.”

Regarding the L-G’s address on February 25, Gupta pointed to the fifth schedule (code of conduct rules), which mandates that interruptions during the L-G’s speech be treated as “disrespect towards the Lt Governor and contempt of the House”. He said suspending the MLAs was not an arbitrary decision, but based on clear parliamentary rules.

Responding to AAP’s allegations, Speaker Gupta said in the Assembly, “LoP Atishi has written a letter to me and is continuously misleading people. I want to make it clear that the dignity of the House has to be maintained, especially during L-G’s address. According to the definition of the Delhi Assembly as per rule 277 of the rule book, the whole premises of the building are included.

“According to the rule, when a member is suspended from the House then that means barred from the whole premises. In the future too, if there will be any misconduct then the same kind of action will be taken,” he said.

The controversy erupted at a time when the Assembly was set to discuss the CAG reports. Gupta accused the opposition of attempting to distract from serious governance issues, writing, “Instead of discussing issues concerning the people of Delhi, particularly the CAG reports, the opposition resorted to disruptive action in the House.”