Nineteen Congress and NCP MLAs barred from the House till Dec 31, for creating a ruckus and burning copies of the state budget
Opposition created a ruckus in the House last Saturday and burned copies of the state budget, demanding loan waiver for farmers
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Shiv Sena knows how to grab every opportunity to voice its demands, even if it means taking up cudgels on behalf of the Opposition. Hours after 19 MLAs from the Congress and NCP were suspended for nine months on Wednesday, over the ruckus during budget presentation and burning copies of it last Saturday, the Sena approached Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asking him to revoke the action.
According to sources, the decision was taken on Tuesday night, following which Parliamentary Affairs Minister Girish Bapat tabled a resolution to this effect. While the Congress and NCP protested and decided to send a petition to the Governor, Sena decided to speak in support. They sought that the action be called off as the MLAs had raised a farmer-centric demand of loan waiver.
Sena minister Diwakar Raote said, "We think their suspension should be revoked immediately as they did not do anything wrong. They were demanding justice for farmers." Sena's posturing is definitely in tune with its loan waiver demand, which the party has been raising along with the Congress and NCP. All the three parties had come together to disrupt the proceedings of the House in the first two weeks, before Sena reached a compromise with the BJP.
Why the suspension
Commenting, Bapat said the Opposition MLAs had conducted themselves in a "disgraceful and unconstitutional manner". "Everybody has the right to express themselves, but setting copies of the state budget on fire was unprecedented," he added.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said even if the government suspends all the MLAs, they would continue to raise farmers' issues.
CM will take a call
When asked, Bapat confirmed that the Sena delegation met the CM, but dismissed an argument that the suspended people be reinstated. "The Congress and NCP members crossed all limits and brought disgrace to the House. Earlier, the Sena MLAs too had protested, but their acts were not as serious," he said.
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