Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Atishi on Sunday urged Speaker Vijender Gupta to revoke the suspension of four AAP MLAs ahead of the budget session. In the winter session of the Delhi Assembly, the Speaker had suspended Aam Aadmi Party MLAs Sanjeev Jha, Som Dutt, Kuldeep Kumar and Jarnail Singh for causing disruption in the House.
Addressing a press conference in the capital, Atishi warned the ruling BJP that if the suspension was not revoked, no Aam Aadmi Party MLA would attend the budget session.
“BJP is trying to suppress the voice of the opposition. When their MLAs stalled the House for several days, no action was taken. But 4 of our MLAs were suspended in the last session and now in the budget session too. Just because they raised questions against the BJP?… By consensus you immediately revoke the suspension; otherwise, none of our MLAs will attend the House,” he said.
Atishi also wrote a letter to Speaker Gupta, accusing him of being “contrary to democratic values”. The Delhi opposition leader alleged that the suspended MLAs were not allowed to attend meetings in the Assembly complex between the two sessions.
He wrote, “Honorable Speaker Sir, after the formation of the Eighth Assembly, the ruling party and the opposition unanimously elected you as their Speaker, with the hope that your experience will ensure the democratic and orderly functioning of the House. I have to say with utmost regret that your attitude towards the opposition from the first meeting of the first session to the first meeting of the fourth session is not only worrying but also contrary to democratic values.”
He said that not allowing any public representative into the Assembly premises has set a new precedent in the country. Atishi said, “Expelling the entire opposition, including the leader of the opposition, from the House for criticizing the government and raising issues of public interest – not only from the House but also from the House premises – is against the dignity of the House. No such example has been seen in the history of independent India in any Assembly, Legislative Council or the highest legislature of the country, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, where the entire opposition has been expelled not only from the House. In fact, he may have even been expelled from the House premises.
He further said, “The democratically elected public representative was treated disrespectfully and prevented from entering the Assembly premises during the entire duration of the session – this is a highly condemnable and completely inappropriate act. It is also a violation of the privileges enjoyed by an elected public representative.”
During the recently concluded Assembly session, it was observed that members of the ruling party disrupted the functioning of the House for three consecutive days, due to which no discussion could be held on many important issues related to Delhi. Yet, you did not order the expulsion of any member. On the contrary, when the opposition members attempted to raise certain issues in the House, you not only threw them out of the House but later completely barred them from entering the Assembly premises and denied them entry for the entire duration of the session.
Meanwhile, when members arrived to attend committee meetings and other scheduled meetings—for which prior notice was given—they were stopped at the gates of the Assembly. “This represents a deliberate attempt to usurp the privileges of elected representatives and hinder their statutory participation in Assembly committees,” the letter read.
The budget session of Delhi Assembly is going to start from 23 to 25 March. Speaker Vijendra Gupta will review the arrangements of the House and announce several unique initiatives, including live singing of ‘Vande Mataram’ and AI-enabled chatbot for legislative research.