Protests In Assam Assembly Over Rahul Gandhi's Disqualification As MP

Congress MLAs, dressed in black, took out a protest march to the Assembly.

Guwahati:

There were huge protests both inside and outside Assam assembly today over Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha over his 2019 remarks which were seen as an insult to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Opposition Congress introduced an adjournment motion to discuss the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as a member of parliament following a Gujarat court verdict last week.

Congress MLAs, dressed in black, were seen carrying placards and took out a protest march to the Assembly.

Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia stressed that the Constitution was violated by the disqualification of Mr Gandhi.

“We want to send a resolution to the President of India requesting her to uphold the Constitution. The Constitution is same for all and the executive must act fairly to protect it,” said Debbrata Saikia.

Responding to this, leader of the house and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “It’s unprecedented that we’re expressing opinions on a judicial matter here. I know that a decision was taken at Congress Legislature Party last night to create noise here.”

This led to massive confrontation as Congress MLAs were joined by all opposition members from AIUDF, CPI (M) and staged protest in the well of the House. They raised slogans in favour of Rahul Gandhi and displayed placards.

In counter attack, the BJP members too rushed to the well of the House and raised slogans denouncing Mr Gandhi.

The house was adjourned for 15 minutes. Again, when the house reassembled and the Chief Minister started to reply, Independent member Akhil Gogoi and Congress MLAs again moved to the well of the House showing placards.

The speaker suspended Independent member Akhil Gogoi, Congress MLAs Kamalakhyda Dey Purkayastha and Jakir Hussain Sikdar from House for the entire day.

The opposition has alleged that the Chief Minister has breached the privilege of the house and officially written to the principal secretary of the Assam legislative assembly.