September 9, 2009

Gujarat Assembly, Descent of Democracy

In the past few years Gujarat Assembly is gaining dubious distinction of a democratic institution that is being misused and abused by sheer power of numbers of members of the ruling party. The rules are misinterpreted to suit the whims of the Chief Minister and the Speaker of the Assembly who has the responsibility of protecting the Opposition becomes a mean to throttle the voice of Opposition.Facts of the proceedings of the recently concluded budget session of the Gujarat Assembly match the telling spirit of weird fiction. A singular incident of suspension of the entire opposition for raising the public issue of lattha tragedy was not an exception. In fact it was the beginning of the saga of descent of democratic values in the Gujarat Assembly which ended with the Speaker turning and twisting rules to avoid a move for his removal by the Opposition Congress.

Gujarat saw the worst ever lattha tragedy last month. By government account alone, more than 138 people died in the incident in Ahmedabad. Unofficial figures go up to 350. Since Assembly session was on, it is a normal practice to raise the issue in the House either by way of zero hour or through adjournment motion. Congress asked permission for zero hour on July 6, the day incident came to light. They were told that they would be given permission next day. However, the next day Minister of State for Home just made a statement under Rule 44 of the Rules of Assembly. No opportunity to the Opposition to utter even a word.Next day request for adjournment motion by Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia was also turned down. In the meantime, the death toll continued to rise. There was an urgent need for discussion in the House. Congress leaders met the Speaker and demanded that there should be discussion in such a situation.

The Speaker Mr. Ashok Bhatt was told about the similar incident in the past when Mr. Bhatt was in Opposition spearheading agitation in the House. At that time not only a special discussion was held, even the Home Minister taking moral responsibility resigned.In the next three days over 138 people lost their lives. New developments had made the statement of the minister meaningless. This made a discussion on the issue in the House all the more important. Congressmen tried to push their demand for discussion, but Marshals threw congressmen out of the House and all members were suspended. A day after Congress member Ashwin Kotwal moved another adjournment motion, but it also met the same fate of rejection by the Speaker. It is ironic that in the Parliament despite all kind of protests and shows, members are not suspended. BJP members did not allow the House to function for 13 days without any such penal action. But here when Congress men tried to raise the voice of people in the House, marshals were used to throttle their voice.

In the process, three microphones of the House were broken because of use of force by marshals. But the Speaker asked media not to report the incident. Video footage of the incident has this fact. If there was telecast, people would have come to know about the use of force against Congress in the House. But three members of the Congress were charged with the breaking of microphones and were asked to pay Rs. 3600 for the repair of the microphones. Seven members were suspended for the entire session. Suspension for the entire session has never happened in the Parliament of the country.

Next day when Congressmen once again tried to raise the issue, they were removed from the House by marshals forcibly. All members were suspended for the day while fourteen members were suspended for three days. None of these members had done anything destructive. But to the surprise of all, some people in a well conspired and organised manner broke a photo frame with the sole idea of arousing religious passion of a section of society and thus to malign Congress as perpetrators of hurting religious sentiments.Ruling party tried to make it a big issue through propaganda against Congress. In fact, the photo frame was about the gate of a temple. It is a well known fact no religious photograph can displayed in the Assembly premises.

July 10 had another brutal show of power by the ruling party within the premises of the Assembly. Congress MLAs had organised a prayer meeting in front of the idol of Mahatma Gandhi in the Assembly premises. While Congressmen were returning to the main building they were attacked by a rowdy mob of about 200 BJP workers who had rushed out of the main building.No one is allowed to stage demonstration within the premises. But these BJP workers, some of whom, very close to MOS Home were in the premises since morning to meet Chief Minister. The group had party office bearers like Samir Barot, Narendra Purohit, Janak Parmar, Gaurav Patel and anti social elements like Kamlesh Tripathi and bootleggers.

Some of these persons were armed with sticks and baseballs. One even had a sharp weapon like knife. While they thrashed Congressmen, police remained mute spectators. It was after much protest by senior Congress leaders that police swung into action and asked these persons to go away. Meanwhile, Congressmen caught four-five of these persons. One of them had a base ball bat. They were handed over to the police. Police did not act. It allowed all to go. Some of these members of beating brigade of BJP were seen going in the cars of party MLAs Geetaben Patel and Vallabh Kakdia. This shows flagrant disregard to the constitutional rights of the members of the House. It is the duty of the ruling party to break deadlock with the Opposition. There are plenty of examples when Congress leaders took the initiative to end the stalemate in the House. Demands of the Opposition were accepted. Never in the past, Opposition was treated with contempt and the business of the House was wrapped up in such unparliamentary way.

There are plenty of instances to quote this from the records of the House. In March 1993, the then Chief Minister was making a statement on Narmada project. Opposition members started slogan shouting, present Speaker Ashok Bhatt who was in Opposition rushed into the well of the House, snatched the statement from the Chief Minister, tore it and threw it into the House. The then Speaker asked the members to go out of the House. But, he did not take action like suspension even against Mr. Bhatt who had made the worst show of physical violence in the House. This instance is on page 90 of the book Lokshahi naa dhabkaara (beats of Democracy), an official document about the House. Interestingly, the book has been published during BJP rule. A copy of page 90 of the book is here for your perusal.

On August 9, 1989, Opposition BJP had a demonstration against price rise in the House. Slogans were shouted and banners and bottles were displayed. Even after all this, no BJP member was suspended from the House. The Speaker just adjourned the House thrice as opposition continued with its unruly behaviour. However, when the House met after three adjournments, Ashok Bhatt rushed into the well of the House and it was adjourned for the fourth time. This incident also figures in the Lokshahi naa dhabkaara. Interestingly, while initiating move to break the deadlock, Minister Nalin Patel expressed regret over the incident which was the creation of the Opposition. This was reciprocated by the Opposition with similar gesture. In the case of deadlock in the House, Speaker and the government make move for normalcy. Till recently, no government had a mindset of wrapping up of House business in the absence of Opposition.
It is very sad that this has been done by the Speaker himself who suspended Congress members for the entire session. It has been done by a person who has been witness to the rich traditions of the House while he himself was indulging in unruly behavior. Congress just wanted to focus on the issue through a special discussion. But all its efforts met with denials by the Speaker on one ground or another.

Here is another incident which speaks volumes of the commitment of the House to the vales of democracy. On February 17, 1981 Opposition BJP had wild protests in the House. It organized slogan shouting and ramdhun in the House. Next day, on February 18, a mock Assembly was held in the Town hall of Ahmedabad. The language here crossed limits of decency and the programme turned out to be an activity in cheap taste.

A member of the ruling Congress wanted to make it an issue of breach of privilege against BJP. But the Speaker held that prima facie it did not make a privilege issue and did not allow the request. However, when Congress organized mock assemblies to focus on the issue of lattha kand, Ashok Bhatt referred the matter to the Privilege Committee. Speaker Ashok Bhatt treated an application for his removal which was moved by Congress under Rule 103 of the Assembly Rules, which is an unconstitutional manner It was filed on July 13. This comes under Article 179 (C) of the Constitution which is similar to Article 94 (C) that simply say 14 days period is necessary. Mr.Bhatt interpreted it wrongly. It had to come up for discussion after 14 days. Since the provision does not specify working days, the 14 day period included holidays also. Speaker Ashok Bhatt in his letter of July 14 communicated to Congress that the resolution to remove the Speaker from the post will be on the agenda of the House on July 28.

But much to the surprise of all, Mr. Bhatt issued another letter on July 17. He misinterpreted the constitutional requirement of 14 day notice period and claimed that 14 day notice period included holidays also. Congress had not given 14 working day notice period and hence the notice stands null and void. This was gross misinterpretation of Constitution for nowhere does the Constitution specify that the 14 days notice period has to be of 14 working days only so the 14 day period ended after July 29, the last day of the current session. Thus with selective interpretation of the ruler he quashed the Congress notice wrongly and he cancelled the notice the Congress had filed for the removal of the Speaker.

It is obvious that defying all rules, Speaker rejected the notice by twisting the definition of the notice period. He cancelled the notice which can never be done since it was a constitutional provision. Rule 21 of the Assembly Rules make it clear. In such cases, if the notice does not meet the 14 day requirement, it is carried forward to the next session.

It is clear from all these incidents that the way the Speaker is conducting the proceedings of the House is against rules and traditions of the House and instead of protecting the right of Opposition, he was perpetrating the dictatorial diktats of the Chief Minister who wanted to avoid exposure of misrule and inefficiency at any cost.

Shaktisinh Gohil
Leader of Opposition
Gujarat