While regretting that the House had been witness to some unprecedented unruly behaviour and obstruction of proceedings in the course of the term of the present Assembly, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee described Speaker H.A. Halim as the “captain of a ship” who had deftly steered it through the choppy waters despite attempts by the Opposition to “sink it.”
Mr. Bhattacharjee was addressing the 14th Assembly of West Bengal on Friday, the last day of its final session. The occasion also marked the last day of Mr. Halim presiding over the House, having served as Speaker since 1982. None from the Opposition was present.
The longest-serving Speaker in the country, Mr. Halim is not contesting the coming Assembly elections.
The Chief Minister complimented Mr. Halim “for being able to protect the Assembly and take its work forward” despite some of the “unfortunate” and “unprecedented” incidents inside the House and the “heckling and insults” the Speaker had been subject to. Some members had to be suspended.
“This Assembly has also seen some incidents of acute disorder and even violence by the Opposition, the likes of which have never before happened in the State's history…We have had to go through it all,” Mr. Bhattacharjee recalled.
Of the incidents being obviously referred to were the mayhem inside the House when Trinamool Congress MLAs had gone on the rampage, overturning and breaking furniture in protest against the police preventing party chief Mamata Banerjee from proceeding towards the Tata Motor's Nano project site at Singur on November 30, 2006.
But, despite such occurrences a lot of work had been achieved and debates held, he said. “Many important Bills have been passed. We have tried to strengthen and improve the democratic system through this Assembly,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said.
