By Sidhima Choudhary
Congress leaders held a sit-in protest inside the Rajasthan Assembly, spending the night there in response to the suspension of their party colleagues following an uproar in the House on Friday.
The protest arose due to a comment by Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Avinash Gehlot when asked a question about hostels for working women. Avinash replied to the question by referring to Indira Gandhi as ‘Dadi’ offending the leader of the Congress Party. Subsequently, the Congress leaders held a sleepover in the Rajasthan Assembly demanding an apology from Avinash Gehlot.
After three adjournments, the house reassembled for the session at 4 pm where six MLAs were suspended after Government Chief Whip Jogeshwar Garg drafted a proposal to suspend the congress ministers as they had ‘crossed all the limits’, and behaved ‘inappropriately’ towards the Speaker which shall not be forgiven. MLAs including Govind Singh Dotasra, Zakir Hussain Gesawat, Ramkesh Meena, Amin Kagzi, Sanjay Kumar Jatav, and Hakeem Ali Khan were suspended.
The comment was criticised and was strongly objected to by the leader of the opposition, Tika Ram Jully who asked whether Gehlot was referring to the former PM Indira Gandhi in his statement. He further demanded that the house should discard the statement as it is hurtful.
The MLAs strode into the well of the house causing the assembly to be adjourned thrice which also led to the suspension of 6 MLAs for the remainder of the ongoing Budget session in the house. Further, it was noticed that the suspended MLAs decided to make their arrangement for bedding and dinner where some clips showed the arrival of mattresses on trucks.
Several ministers took the issue to social media where Rajasthan Congress President, Govind Singh Dostara said, “Rajasthan will not tolerate any kind of insult on former Prime Minister Indira Ji,” asking the BJP Minister Gehlot to apologise. Whereas, Zakir Hussain said that the suspension of ministers from the assembly cannot suppress the voices of the people.