GANDHINAGAR, July 25: The Gujarat Assembly was thrown into turmoil today leading to a walkout by the entire Opposition and suspension of two Congress MLAs, when the Congress alleged that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal were responsible for last week's attack on students of the local Centre for Environment and Planning Technology (CEPT).Opposition and ruling party members then got into a shouting match, exchanging charges and countercharges.Congress whip Naresh Rawal and his party colleague Khumansinh Chauhan were suspended on a motion brought by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Mehta for making certain remarks while leaving. Later, leader of the Opposition Amarsinh Chaudhary declared that the Congress would boycott the House until the suspensions were revoked.The trouble began during a calling attention motion by Usmangani Devdiwala and three Congress MLAs on the beating up of students. Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya replied that the incident was a reaction to ragging and thatthe assailants had been identified.Pandya also said that the police was deployed on the college campus. When Dewadiwala asked why no one had been arrested, Pandya replied that the owner of a Tata Sumo vehicle used by the assailants was arrested ``last night''. At this, Chaudhary alleged that assailants were not being arrested because they were VHP and Bajrang Dal men, sparking protests from the treasury benches.Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel then asked Chaudhary to name at least one person belonging to these organisations. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister said the Opposition should make allegations on the basis of specific information, evoking shouts from the Congress benches.Chaudhary said that VHP and Dal activists were involved in 22 cases of harassment and intimidation of minorities.Meanwhile BJP spokesman Bharat Pandya alleged that that Chaudhary was ``groping for issues'' to raise in the House because PCC president C D Patel had pulled him up for the Congress Legislature Party's``abysmally poor performance'' in the current Assembly session.He said the BJP too had condemned the ragging as well as the attack on CEPT students.But the Congress was not mollified. Instead, it demanded that a Central team be sent to Gujarat to ``study the deteriorating law and order situation''.Chaudhary said he would soon be writing to the Prime Minister on the issue. ``There is no reason why such a team should not be sent to Gujarat if this could be done in Tamil Nadu, Bihar and West Bengal,'' he argued.
