Winter session blend of aggression, compassion, assertion

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, December 16

The winter session that concluded here yesterday witnessed an over-aggressive Opposition, compassionate Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur trying to please everybody, Speaker Rajiv Bindal trying to strike a balance between the Opposition and ruling and a few ruling legislators trying to assert their presence.

On the first two days, the Congress, led by leader of the Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri, adopted an aggressive posture, staging a walkout from the House in Question Hour, alleging that the issues being taken up by Congress MLAs were not being allowed by the Speaker. On the second day, the leader even raised slogans against the Speaker that were condemned by BJP MLAs.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Bhardwaj brought in a resolution to condemn the behaviour of Congress leaders but the Speaker did not allow it, saying that let better wisdom prevail on the Opposition legislators. On the first two days, Congress legislators remained out of the House during Question Hour.

Sources told The Tribune that many Congress legislators did not like the idea of remaining out of the House for the entire day. They maintained that the Congress should put forth their point of views in debates.

After walkouts, Congress legislators attended the proceedings and participated in all debates.

Besides the Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition, BJP MLA from Nurpur Rakesh Pathania, Congress MLA from Kinnaur Jagat Singh Negi and CPM MLA Rakesh Singha made their presence felt in the House.

While Negi was aggressive targeting the government on various issues, Pathania aggressively defended the government, urging legislators of his party to stand up and counter the slogans being raised against the BJP.

In his concluding remarks, Agnihotri in a lighter vein urged the CM to make Pathania a minister for aggression.

Singha came with full preparation after going through the agenda being presented in the House each day. He, along with Congress MLA from Palampur Ashish Butail, initiated a discussion on the non-implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006. Singha put forward the plight of poor farmers.

Singha caused embarrassment to bureaucrats of the Education Department by pointing out to grammatical and other mistakes in the HP Higher Education Council (Establishment and Regulation) Bill, 2018.

The amendment to the NDPS Bill that made possession of even small quantity of narcotics a non-bailable offence saw the involvement of the maximum number of leaders in a debate. Despite concerns being expressed by MLAs that the Act could be detrimental to tourism and the youth, the CM pressed ahead with the passing of the Bill on the plea that he wanted to send a strong message to drug peddlers.

The bureaucrats sitting in the officers’ gallery in the House had embarrassment many times when the legislators blamed them for being hurdle to development schemes.

Two protests were organised during the session. The government employees carried out a protest demanding the implementation of the old pension scheme and farmers from Baijnath demanded the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

Cong on the offensive

• The Congress staged a walkout from the House in Question Hour on the first day, alleging that the issues being taken up by Congress MLAs were not being allowed by the Speaker
• The On the second day, leaders, led by Opposition leader Mukesh Agnihotri, raised slogans against the Speaker that were condemned by BJP MLAs

MLAs’ salvo 

• While Negi was targeting the government on various issues, Pathania aggressively defended the government, urging legislators of his party to stand up and counter the slogans being raised against the BJP.
• In his concluding remarks, Mukesh Agnihotri in a lighter vein urged the CM to make Pathania a minister for aggression

‘Wisdom prevails’

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Bhardwaj brought in a resolution to condemn the behaviour of Congress leaders but the Speaker did not allow it, saying that let better wisdom prevail on the Opposition legislators.