Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on March 24 dubbed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as ‘murder’ of democracy and said that this is the beginning of the end of ‘dictatorship’.
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“To call a thief a thief has become a crime in our country. While those thieves and looters are still free, Rahul Gandhi is punished,” he said.
The decision to disqualify the Congress leader as a member of the Lok Sabha is the direct murder of democracy, the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra said and added that the entire government machinery is under pressure.
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“This is the beginning of the end of the dictatorship... the battle only needs a direction (now),” he said.
A day after a local court in Surat convicted Mr. Gandhi in a 2019 criminal defamation case, the Lok Sabha Secretariat said the former has been disqualified from the Lower House.
Minutes after the notification came out, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi staged a walkout in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly to protest the disqualification of the Congress leader.
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“We condemn the decision to disqualify Rahul Gandhi as a member of the Lok Sabha. We decided to walk out in protest,” Maharashtra Congress chief and MLA Nana Patole told the House.
Later, the MLAs of the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Shiv Sena (UBT) staged a protest on the stairs of the Assembly building.
Speaking in the Lower House, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Atul Bhatkhalkar said that Congress MLAs staging a walkout is laughable as it was the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government which had implemented the law to disqualify a member after a conviction.
Earlier in the day, the House was adjourned three times as pandemonium prevailed due to sloganeering by the Congress legislators and the treasury benches.
The Congress members demanded the suspension of those members from the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena, who hit a poster of Mr. Gandhi with footwear on Thursday over his remarks against Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar.