Bhubaneswar The Odisha Assembly on Tuesday plunged into chaos when members of the ruling BJP and opposition Congress scuffled in the well of the House leading to several adjournments.
According to sources, Jayanarayan Mishra of BJP and Tara Prasad Bahinipati of Congress along with several other MLAs from both parties were just short of engaging in fisticuffs. Though BJD members were also in the well, they did not participate in the scuffle.
The opposition BJD and Congress members were protesting on separate issues. While the BJD members were demanding a clarification from Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi over Mishra’s remark terming the merger of Koshal region with Odisha a historic blunder, Congress MLAs were agitating over the alleged rise in crimes against women in the state.
The lawmakers were seen pushing each other, standing on the reporters’ table and raising slogans during the protest. Bahinipati even tried to climb onto the Speaker’s podium to disrupt proceedings but was unsuccessful.
Tension erupted in the House when the senior BJP lawmaker rushed towards Bahinipati, who was standing in front of Urban Development Minister K C Mohapatra as he was replying to a question. “Mishra caught hold of my shirt collar and pushed me. I was requesting minister Mohapatra to stop giving a reply when the House was not in the order. I requested him with folding hands. But, Mishra suddenly came up to me and caught hold of my collar,” Bahinipati told reporters outside the House.
Though Speaker Surama Padhy called an all-party meeting to discuss the issues and restore normalcy in the House, the noisy scenes continued. The House was adjourned four times during the day.
“The most unfortunate thing that happened today (in the assembly) is that an MLA broke the mic of a minister while he was replying to a question in the assembly,” Mishra told reporters.
Reacting to the unprecedented scenes in the Assembly, Congress leader Navajyoti Patnaik said: “The rising crimes against women in Odisha are alarming. Instead of ensuring justice, the BJP government remains a mute spectator. When Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati and others raised this issue in the Assembly, BJP MLA Jayanarayan Mishra and his colleagues resorted to physical assault. This is BJP’s governance—silence on crimes, violence in response to questions.”
The BJP, on the other hand, accused the Opposition BJD and Congress of engaging in a competition to outdo each other. “While the Urban Development Minister was replying to a question in the House, the BJD and the Congress MLAs tried to break the mic and took away the files from his table. Such behaviour is intolerable in a democratic setting,” said BJP MLA Tankadhar Tripathy.
He further claimed that the Opposition members threw posters at the Speaker. “The BJD and the Congress should apologise for their behaviour,” he added.
Congress MLA Sofia Firdous said that Speaker should not have allowed the proceedings when the House was in turmoil. She also accused BJP leaders of heckling a senior Congress member.
“We had never seen members of Opposition and Treasury bench clashing in the well of the House. This had never happened in the history of Odisha assembly,” BJD member Arun Kumar Sahoo said.
