What led Maharashtra Speaker to open probe against Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut?

Ruling MLAs demand the MP’s arrest for allegedly calling the House ‘Chor Mandal’ and Opposition leader Ajit Pawar suggests the Assembly ‘take necessary action against the persons involved’.

File photo of Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar. (Express photo by Amit Chakravarty)

5 min readMumbaiMar 1, 2023 03:35 PM IST First published on: Mar 1, 2023 at 03:35 PM IST

Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar opened a detailed investigation against Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut Wednesday, after BJP and Shiv Sena members submitted a breach-of-privilege notice against him for allegedly calling the Assembly “Chor Mandal” (house of thieves). Narwekar said he would present his decision to the Assembly on March 8.

What did Sanjay Raut say?

Speaking to reporters in the morning, Raut targeted MLAs of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. “This is an artificial Shiv Sena. This is a duplicate Shiv Sena. They are all a group of thieves. This is not Vidhi Mandal, it is Chor Mandal (This is not a house of law, it is a house of thieves)”.

“They took away offices from us, but that does not mean we will leave the party. The party has given us many positions and offices and we will sacrifice them all for the party. We are not goons,” he further said.

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What happened on the floor of the Legislative assembly?

BJP MLA Atul Bhatkalkar submitted a breach-of-privilege notice to Narwekar over Raut’s statements. He demanded that the notice should be sent to the breach of privilege committee on Wednesday itself, a hearing be held on the same day, and a decision be taken about the matter before the House can resume its work for the day. “I have the video clip with me where he (Raut) spoke to a TV news channel and called the Assembly a ‘house of thieves’, and also called it ‘a house of goons’,” Bhatkalkar said.

BJP MLA Ashish Shelar called it an anti-Maharashtra act. “Is there a Dawood in this House? The Opposition does not call Dawood a thief but it calls members of this Assembly thieves! This is an insult to Maharashtra, it is an anti-Maharashtra act. This is a place where laws are made to book thieves. The Speaker is a member of this Assembly and all Opposition leaders are also its members. They should take pride in it. I am requesting strict action should be taken against him,” Shelar said.

Leader of the Opposition Ajit Pawar said, “No one has a right to call us thieves. Each MLA represents five lakh people of Maharashtra. If this has been said, we must verify the truth of the matter, and then the House can take necessary action against the persons involved.”

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The Shiv Sena’s Bharat Gogawale criticised Raut and allegedly insulted him with a slur. Tensions flared up as the Opposition, while agreeing with the MLA’s sentiments, demanded that he take back the slur.

The Assembly was adjourned four times in the first 90 minutes of the budget session’s Day 3 amid sloganeering from Shiv Sena and BJP MLAs. It started at 11am and worked till 11.15am, after which it was adjourned for 10 minutes. It briefly resumed but was adjourned for 20 minutes following sloganeering. It started again at 11.45am but was immediately adjourned for 30 minutes. At 12.15pm, it was adjourned for a fourth time, for 15 minutes.

What was speaker Rahul Narwekar’s final ruling?

As the Assembly resumed at 12.30pm, Speaker Narvekar ruled that BJP and Shiv Sena MLAs had submitted a notice for a breach-of-privilege motion against Raut. “As per their notice, Raut said via the medium of a TV channel that ‘this is not Vidhan Mandal, it is Chor Mandal’,” he said.

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“My primary opinion is that this is an insult to all the representatives of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and to the heritage and culture of the Assembly. It is an insult to members of the Assembly, to the Constitution of India and to the people of Maharashtra. This is a serious matter,” he said.

Expressing the need for a detailed investigation into the matter, Narwekar said, “It is my constitutional responsibility to protect the rights of Assembly members. After a detailed investigation within two days, I will give my decision to the Assembly on March 8.”

Shiv Sena and BJP MLAs then entered the well of the Assembly and shouted slogans demanding Raut’s arrest. Narwekar then adjourned the House for the day.