Chaos as Oppn raps minister for defying Speaker

Rane said the minister had behaved in an irresponsible manner and it was a blot on the democratic traditions of the House. He pointed out that even as the Deputy Speaker was asking Patil to sit down, the minister had talked back stating that he would not obey. Rane demanded an apology from Patil immediately. Incidentally, Patil was not present in the House.

When Bhujbal rose to reply on behalf of the government, several Opposition members including Mahadevrao Shivankar and Narayan Rane raised an objection, pointing out that Bhujbal had no right to speak in the Assembly on the issue as he was not a member of the Assembly but of the Legislative Council. However, Speaker Arun Gujarathi said that Bhujbal as a minister had the right to speak on the floor of the assembly.

Bhujbal said the Finance Minister had no intention of insulting the chair and that the Opposition members had come prepared for interrupting the speech of the Finance Minister. He pointed out that even banners had been brought in the House and the Opposition members were not allowing the Finance Minister to speak, because of which he could not conclude his speech within the stipulated time. Bhujbal said the Opposition was at fault and that the leader of the Opposition should apologise.

Later, Shivankar, Rane, Datta Nalawade, Sabir Shaikh, Sudhir Mungantiwar and others raised technical objections to the speech of Bhujbal and Minister for State Excise Vasant Chavan. They claimed that ministers who were not elected and had become members of the legislature by being nominated to the Legislative Council had no right to participate in any debate of the Assembly except while replying to questions raised by members on issues concerning their departments.

Ending the debate on the issue, Speaker Gujarathi reprimanded the members from both the sides. He read out excerpts from the speech of Jayant Patil which, he said, amounted to strictures against the Speaker. The words were later removed from the records of the House with a unanimous voice vote. Gujarathi said the ruling party had not cooperated with him while distributing time among various parties for the discussion on the budget.

He also reprimanded the Opposition members for tearing papers and throwing the pieces on Deputy Speaker last evening during Finance Minister’s reply. He appealed to both Opposition and the treasury benches to restrain themselves and behave properly in the House.