Goa Assembly adjourned after ruckus over Congress MLA’s remark about Speaker
Congress legislator Altone D’Costa accused Speaker Eamesh Tawadkar of being anti-scheduled tribes for rejecting a private members’ resolution demanding reservations for them
The Goa Legislative Assembly was adjourned twice on Monday after ruling and opposition members created a pandemonium in the House trading charges at each other over Congress legislator Altone D’Costa’s “anti-scheduled tribes” charge against Speaker Eamesh Tawadkar.
D’Costa had accused the Speaker of being “anti-scheduled tribes” for rejecting a private members’ resolution demanding reservations for them. “It appeared that the Speaker was acting on the directions of the anti-ST BJP government,” D’Costa told the media on Saturday after his resolution was rejected on Friday.
On Monday, soon after business commenced for the day, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Krishna Salkar moved a breach of privilege motion against D’Costa alleging that his comment was “an insult to the Speaker and an insult to the House”.
Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar said that the resolution was rejected on grounds that a similar resolution was already passed unanimously by the House a year ago.
In response, Congress legislator and leader of the Opposition, Yuri Alemão, said it was the right of a member to submit a resolution and submitting a repeated resolution wasn’t against the rules.
However, as ruling and opposition members traded charges against each other, the Speaker adjourned the House for half an hour. After the House reconvened, it was adjourned again for another half an hour, resulting in the question hour being washed out.
“D’Costa needs to apologise to the speaker,” chief minister Pramod Sawant told the House amid sloganeering by the ruling members and protests from the Opposition.
The opposition alleged that the ruling deliberately ‘sabotaged’ the question hour to avoid answering questions especially on the National Education Policy that they were ready.
“There were backroom manoeuvres to stop this discussion. It was a planned conspiracy to delay our session in the morning, especially the question hour. They all came with placards and in this way the question hour was adjourned,” Congress MLA Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira said.
In the eye of a storm, D’Costa said he was right to feel aggrieved by the Speaker’s decision to reject the resolution he had moved, and it proved that the government had done nothing for the Scheduled Tribes Community for the last more than 12 years.
