Kolkata: The third day of the West Bengal Assembly winter session witnessed pandemonium on Wednesday as the BJP legislators staged a walkout after the microphone of the party’s woman MLA was ‘disconnected’ in the middle of her speech.
The BJP was seeking a debate on crime against women in the state and had moved an adjournment motion. Speaker Biman Banerjee disallowed the motion but permitted it to be read out.
As Tapasi Mondal, the BJP legislator from Haldia in East Midnapore district was delivering her address, her microphone was allegedly disconnected before she could complete her speech.
The BJP legislators present on the floor of the House protested over the development saying that they were not allowed to read out the contents of the adjournment motion. Later they staged a walkout in protest.
After coming out of the House, they staged a protest within the Assembly premises and also carried placards. Later, the chief whip of BJP’s legislative party Dr Shankar Ghosh told newspersons that only the edited version of the motion was allowed to be read out on the floor of the House.
“However, we were not given the scope for any discussion. Moreover, the microphone of our legislator Tapasi Mondal was disconnected. Even after the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata, there is no end to similar crimes throughout West Bengal. By disconnecting the microphone of our legislator, the treasury bench is actually trying to silence the dissenting voice on such issues,” Ghosh said.
He also criticized the Speaker of the House Biman Bandopadhyay and alleged that the latter was playing “a biased role” while running the House.
“Our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, after coming to power, advised the opposition parties to maintain silence. The Speaker is exactly trying to implement that,” Ghosh said.
On Tuesday, the parents of the victim R.G. Kar doctor came to the Assembly premises and met the Leader of Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari and other BJP legislators. The parents also requested the LoP to take some concrete steps to ensure speedy justice in the matter. They also met Naushad Siddique, the sole All India Secular Front (AISF) representative in the state assembly and made a similar appeal to him.
(IANS)
