Fourteen Opposition MLAs were on Saturday suspended for one year after they created a ruckus in the Assembly over the police's failure to nab the men who decamped with a Ganesh idol from a temple in Diveagar in Raigad district.
The golden idol weighing 1.5 kg was robbed last Saturday but the police are yet to trace the culprits. As question hour was getting over, MLAs of the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) brought out an idol of Ganesha with cries of “Ganpati Bappa Morya.” They raised slogans saying the government was shameless as the robbery case had not been solved.
Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik led the slogan-shouting and when Speaker Dilip Walse Patil asked him to remove his cap and saffron scarf before speaking, the Opposition MLAs started doing an “aarti” with cymbals and sang loudly. Mr. Walse Patil adjourned the House for half an hour and later when it reassembled, Deputy Speaker Vasant Purke reprimanded the members for bringing an idol into the House and asked them to take their seats. But the singing continued and Mr. Purke adjourned the Assembly for an hour.
When the House reassembled after the second adjournment, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshvardhan Patil moved a resolution to suspend 14 members and it was passed. Mr. Patil said the members had committed a breach of privilege by bringing an idol into the House and performing “aarti” and ignoring the chair's requests.
As another ruckus followed, the House was adjourned for the day. Nationalist Congress Party MLA Shashikant Shinde said the Sena had made the theft a political issue and demanded an inquiry to examine if the idol was really stolen or not.
The MLAs who were suspended were Ram Shinde (BJP), and the following from the Sena: Eknath Shinde, Pratap Sarnaik, Dynaraj Chowgule, Sanjay Gawande, Vijay Shivtare, Vinod Ghosalkar, Mahadeo Babar, Abhijeet Adsul, Chandrakant Mokate, Rajan Vichare, Balaji Kinikar, Daulat Daroda, and Sunit Minchekar.
Eknath Khadse, Leader of the Opposition felt the suspension for one year was too much but admitted the MLAs shouldn't have resorted to such behaviour. Opposition members — Mr. Khadse and Bala Nandgaonkar of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) — were upset over the adjournment as they were all set for a discussion on issues of corruption in the government. The issues included inaction in cases of land allotment to film institute Whistling Woods, the Adarsh society scam and other matters.
‘Match-fixing ’
Mr. Nandgaonkar said the MNS was unaware of this proposed action in the House but the yearlong suspension was unfair. The MNS has met the Speaker and asked him to allow the proposed discussion on corruption issues sometime later. He alleged there was some “match-fixing” so that the corruption issues couldn't be discussed during the day.
Two armed robbers fled with the idol, worth over Rs. 38 crore, many gold ornaments and Rs. 2 lakh in cash from the temple in Diveagar, about 150 km from Mumbai. The temple guard was fatally stabbed and another guard injured when they tried to stop the robbery.
