Congress leaders continued their sit-in protest inside the Rajasthan Assembly and spent the night there against the suspension of their party colleagues following an uproar in the House on Friday.
All the six suspended MLAs — Rajasthan Congress President Govind Singh Dotasra, Deputy Leader of Opposition Ramkesh Meena, Amin Kagzi, Zakir Hussain Gesawat, Hakeem Ali Khan and Sanjay Kumar Jatav, were seen sleeping on bedding inside the House.
They were suspended following a protest over BJP minister Avinash Gehlot referring to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as “aapki dadi” (your grandmother).
आज रात्रि, विधानसभा में ! जनहित की बुलंद आवाज़!
आपकी आवाज़ को दबाने की किसी भी कोशिश को नाकाम करेंगे, हर मुद्दे पर मजबूती से खड़े रहेंगे!#RajasthanVidhanSabha #जनताकीआवाज pic.twitter.com/2XVcYOvZJQ
— Zakir Hussain Gesawat – MLA🇮🇳 (@ZakirHussainINC) February 21, 2025
The Rajasthan Assembly on Friday witnessed chaos over a remark by a minister while answering a question regarding hostels for working women, which also led to three adjournments of the House.
During the Question Hour, Mr Gehlot, the Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, pointed to the opposition and said, “In the 2023-24 budget of also, like always, you named the scheme (on working women’s hostels) after your ‘dadi’ (grandmother) Indira Gandhi.”
Leader of Opposition Tika Ram Jully strongly objected to the minister’s remarks and demanded that the “inappropriate word” be removed from the record. Several Congress MLAs then started sloganeering and moved towards the well.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Jogaram Patel, however, said there was nothing unparliamentary about the word ‘dadi’.
Uproar In Rajasthan Assembly
The House was initially adjourned for half an hour, then till 2 pm and again till 4 pm. When proceedings resumed at 4 pm, government chief whip Jogeshwar Garg said the opposition had crossed limits.
“The speed and intention with which they moved towards the chair and the incident of reaching close to the Speaker is definitely condemnable and not a pardonable crime. Therefore, I request that as a result of the indecent and condemnable conduct of the opposition members in the House, the following members should be suspended for the remaining period of the current budget session… Govind Singh Dotasara, Ramkesh Meena, Amin Kagzi, Jakir Hussain, Hakim Ali and Sanjay Kumar,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Mr Jully later said the minister had made “indecent” comments and the BJP’s attitude was one of suppressing the voice of the opposition.
“Minister Shri Avinash Gehlot made indecent comments about respected leader Indira Gandhi ji, who sacrificed her life for the country, but our MLAs were suspended. This shows that the BJP only wants to work with a dictatorial attitude. Not allowing the Leader of the Opposition to deliver his speech on the Governor’s address and now suspending 6 MLAs, including the state (Congress) president, is the result of the BJP’s thinking of suppressing the voice of the Opposition,” he wrote on X in Hindi.
Senior party leader and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot said the Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma-led BJP government in the state was trying to hide its failures.
“First, a minister of the BJP government made an indecent comment on former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and then suspended the Congress MLAs from the House who protested against not apologising for it. This shows that the method in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is being adopted in the Rajasthan Assembly as well. Just like MPs are suspended there to hide their failures, the same has been done here,” he said in a post in Hindi.
“The government had no work to show in the last one year, so the Leader of opposition was not allowed to give a speech highlighting its failures during the address. Now our state president and MLAs from Dalit, backward, tribal and minority communities have been suspended from the Budget session. Is this not an attempt to divert attention from the discussion on the Budget,” he asked.
Congress has announced a statewide protest against the remarks on Saturday.
(With agency inputs)
