On March 10, the ongoing Budget session of the Gujarat Assembly witnessed dramatic scenes when Congress MLAs were suspended from the House for a day following their protest demanding a discussion on the change of prasad (offering) at the Ambaji temple. The decision of the temple authorities to discontinue ‘mohan thal’ and instead offer ‘chikki’ sparked a controversy in the State. The government settled the issue later saying the temple authorities will offer ‘mohan thal’ as prasad and ‘chikki’ as an option.
This was the second time that Opposition members were suspended from the House during this session of the State Assembly. On March 1, 19 legislators from the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party were suspended from the Assembly for a day after they shouted slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. The Opposition MLAs were demanding a discussion then too — on the issue of a fake trainee police sub inspector found undergoing training at a State-run police training academy. When Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary rejected the demand of the Congress for an urgent discussion on the issue, which the party claimed was linked to the future of the youth, 16 Congress MLAs and three AAP MLAs walked out as a mark of protest. Following this, Gujarat Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs minister Rushikesh Patel moved a motion for the suspension of the members for a day. He claimed that the Opposition MLAs had raised placards and shouted slogans as a “pre-planned” strategy. At present, the BJP enjoys a brute majority of 156 in the 182-member Assembly. In addition, three independent candidates who won elections last year also extended support to the BJP.
Suspending Opposition members during House proceedings has become a normal practice in Gujarat. Sometimes, suspensions have flouted rules. In 2018, two Congress MLAs — Pratap Dudhat and Amrish Der — were suspended for three years for allegedly attacking a BJP lawmaker with a microphone in the House, while another legislator, Baldevji Thakor, was suspended for a year for allegedly disrupting the proceedings of the House. The move was met with criticism since the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha rule book has no provisions to support such action. The suspensions were revoked days later.
Not just a few Opposition members, but nearly the whole Opposition has been suspended in the past. In 2013, when the Gujarat Lokayukta Commission Bill was passed in the Assembly, the lone warrior opposing it was Keshubhai Patel since more than 55 MLAs of the Congress had been suspended earlier. A few other Opposition MLAs were conspicuous by their absence. The Bill, which the then Governor Kamla Beniwal had returned for reconsideration after raising some objections, was naturally passed without any fracas.
Due to such frequent suspensions, critical issues concerning the public are not discussed by the lawmakers when the House is in session. It is perhaps for the first time that the Gujarat Assembly has not found a single issue worth debating under Rule 116 of the Assembly, which deals with matters of “urgent public importance,” even three weeks into the Budget session.
This is the second session of the 15th Assembly after the Assembly polls were held in December 2022. The 14th Assembly held 11 sessions between January 2018 and September 2022 totalling 123 days, according to a report by the PRS Legislative Research. The report says that on average, the 14th Assembly sat for two sessions and 25 days a year. In 2000 and 2010, the average sitting days for the State Assembly was 31 days a year. In the 12th Assembly, the Assembly too sat for an average of 31 days a year.
Between Opposition members suspended and a reduced number of sitting days of the Gujarat Assembly, there is a risk that substantive, democratic policy debates are getting stifled in the State. Unless a robust bipartisan spirit re-enters the Assembly debates, led by Mr. Chaudhary and the BJP majority of the House, the absence of Opposition voices raising critical questions regarding the policy agenda will be to the detriment of development, and nudge Gujarat towards a strong-arm approach to governance. Equally, the Opposition could play a more effective role in the Assembly if it prioritised policy issues rationally, such as unemployment, instead of stoking confrontation over prasad preferences.
