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Cong. takes serious note of unfortunate House incidents

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI JULY 4. The Congress leadership is understood to have taken a "serious note'' of the unfortunate incidents that took place inside the House during and after the election of the Kalkaji Congress MLA, Subhash Chopra, as the Speaker of the Delhi Assembly on Thursday. The incidents have been condemned as all parliamentary norms were thrown to the winds and the entire ceremony was hijacked without any provocation.

At the same time, the party leadership is believed to have expressed its strong displeasure at the manner in which block level meetings were held in certain areas leading to incidents of violence and indiscipline. The party is likely to initiate some action against the guilty after the conclusion of the AICC session in Shimla on July 10. What is even worse is that certain people who had been expelled from the party during the last MCD elections, created a ruckus at the Shahdara meeting and disrupted it in the presence of the PCC president, Chaudhary Prem Singh.

Sources in the party revealed that Thursday's incidents inside and outside the Assembly had not helped in improving the image of the party and Government. The ruling party has come under fire for holding the House to ransom and making the privileged proceedings of the House a party affair. Such was the anarchy witnessed inside the House that senior Congress leaders, some of them having spent quite some time in Parliament, occupied seats in the Officers' Gallery only to be ordered out by the Chair after the Opposition protested. "What happened inside the House was unprecedented and unparliamentary. It is something which has lowered the dignity of the House and would remain etched in the memory as something which could have been avoided,'' a senior official remarked.

Throwing all parliamentary conventions and norms to the winds, visitors sitting in the Lieutenant-Governor's Gallery and the Visitors' Gallery not only clapped when Mr. Chopra was elected Speaker but slogans were also raised inside the House. All this happened in the presence of the Deputy Speaker, Kiran Chaudhary, who was in the Chair at that time but refrained from evicting those violating the rules. What surprised many was that when the presence of unwanted people was pointed out in the Officer's Gallery by the BJP, all concerned were asked to leave by Ms. Chaudhary, but no action was taken when the visitors' clapped from the LG Gallery and supporters shouted slogans from the Visitors Gallery. Anyone found violating these norms can be punished by the House and even put behind bars.

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