Gujarat Congress MLAs take off shirts at protest outside Assembly, trigger row

After ruling BJP MLAs demanded action, Speaker Nimaben Acharya said she would take a decision after watching videos of the incident, which took place moments before the House met in the morning.

Protesting the unavailability of electricity to farmers, Congress MLAs Lalit Vasoya, from the Dhoraji constituency in Rajkot, and Vimal Chudasma from Somnath, allegedly took off their shirts. They, along with other opposition MLAs, were demonstrating with placards. (File)

The ruling BJP demanded action against two Congress legislators who allegedly removed their shirts during a protest outside the Gujarat Assembly on Friday. Speaker Nimaben Acharya said she would decide on the action after watching videos of the incident, which took place moments before the House met at 10 am.

After the Question Hour, chief whip Pankaj Desai raised a point of order and said that as per the rulebook, no such protest was allowed on the Assembly premises. He sought action against the MLAs. Supporting him, Education Minister Jitu Vaghani said that since a lot of women, including police, MLAs, government officials and reporters, would be present, the Congress MLAs should not have removed their clothes, “which is not our culture”.

Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar, from the Danilimda constituency, responded saying the minister should refrain from talking about culture. He also accused the BJP of having misused the Assembly premises in the past. “The home minister called reporters to his office in the Assembly and gave them bytes, which is against the rules,” he said.

Former home minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja said that “if action is not taken against such acts today, these will be held inside the Assembly complex tomorrow”.

And Speaker Acharya said, “I will watch all the videos of the incident and then take a decision.”.

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