Ruckus as Cong MLAs protest Sandeep’s presence in House

The Haryana assembly on Friday witnessed uproarious scenes as Congress legislators staged a walkout, raising slogans against the BJP-JJP government over presence of minister Sandeep Singh, who is facing sexual misconduct allegations, in the House.

As the zero hour began, Congress MLAs, led by the leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda and deputy leader of the Congress Legislature Party Aftab Ahmed, rose from their seats, creating a pandemonium. Later, they walked out of the House.

After the Congress legislators left, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar requested speaker Gian Chand Gupta that everything that transpired in the House over the issue ( Sandeep’s presence) should not be a part of the proceedings. Speaker Gupta then ordered that the proceedings in question be expunged.

Earlier, as the second leg of the budget session started, Sandeep, the former India hockey team captain, arrived at the assembly and assumed his seat a little before the proceedings began. He had skipped the first phase of the budget session in wake of investigations into the case. He was relieved of his sports portfolio amid the controversy after Chandigarh police registered the case on January 1 for allegedly outraging the modesty of a junior athletics coach posted in Haryana. Sandeep, however, continues to remain a minister of state for printing and stationery and has vehemently denied the misconduct charges.

The ruling dispensation decided to let the minister attend the House on the premise that the investigation was pending and that the law of the land considers every accused innocent until proven guilty.

Hooda-Dalal war of words

Hooda lost his cool during the question hour when agriculture minister JP Dalal was responding to a question of Congress’ Rohtak MLA Bharat Bhushan Batra. The Rohtak MLA had asked whether it was a fact that many unauthorised buildings had been constructed on the green belt along the scheduled roads and national highways. He wanted to know the action government has taken.

Dalal said 99 FIRs have been lodged, 1,523 show-cause notices issued and 393 illegal constructions were demolished. The minister, however, repeatedly said mushrooming of unauthorised buildings was rampant during the Congress rule, leading to sharp exchanges between Batra and Dalal, forcing chief minister Khattar to come to the defence of his minister.

When speaker asked Hooda to sit down as Khattar, the leader of the House, wanted to speak, Hooda declined. “How can you (speaker) ask me to sit down, I am already standing,” Hooda said. Then Hooda angrily told Dalal to stop blaming the Congress. “You better stop speaking adversely about previous term of Congress...Don’t force me...Otherwise, I will give you a befitting reply exposing your past deeds which will leave you red-faced...”

Abhay takes on speaker

The opening sitting of the second leg of the budget session saw the lone INLD MLA in the House Abhay Chautala locking horns with speaker Gupta. During the pre-recess sittings of the assembly session, speaker had named Ellenabad MLA and stopped him from attending session for two days.

On Friday, during the question hour, Chautala wanted to know the extent as well as the status of agriculture loans lying outstanding against the farmers. Co-operation minister Banwari Lal replied but Chautala was not satisfied. He said that he did not receive the complete reply.

Chautala also wanted to know the status of the agriculture loans pertaining to private banks. The cooperation minister said he could table the answer pertaining to his department only and that MLA should have asked finance minister for the loan details pertaining to private banks.

Hooda, too, backed Chautala following which the speaker intervened. Chautala, however, objected to speaker’s intervention. Gupta advised Chautala to desist from speaking sarcastically. The war of words continued and when speaker asked Chautala to ask supplementary question, the MLA shot back: “You are again doing the same thing...why do you intervene...” Chautala then forwarded three queries related to his main question. Khattar said the supplementary questions of Chautala are related to three different departments and the answers to these cannot be furnished immediately. Telling the speaker that he was unhappy with his “repeated interruptions”, Chautala walked out of the House.