BENGALURU: Karnataka Assembly Speaker U T Khader on Wednesday suspended 10 BJP MLAs for the rest of the session for unruly behaviour after they stormed into the well of the House, tore up copies of Bills that were tabled and flung the pieces of paper at the Deputy Speaker Rudrappa Lamani.
The suspended members are Vedavyas Kamat, Yashpal Suvarna, Aravind Bellad, V Sunil Kumar, Umanath Kotian, R Ashoka, Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, Dheeraj Muniraju, Araga Jnanenda and Bharat Shetty. This followed a voice vote after Law Minister H K Patil moved a resolution to suspend the BJP members.
Speaker U T Khader said the BJP leaders had disrespected the position of the Speaker and hence, action was necessary. “They did not respect the suspension order and even threatened the marshals. They have to be punished for this to send out a message. I am capable of taking even harsher steps”, he said.
After the names were read out, the House was adjourned for 10 minutes. When it was reconvened, the suspended members continued to sit in the House and staged a protest in the well. The marshals had a tough time trying to evict them from the House.
The BJP and JD(S) leaders were protesting against the Congress government for deputing senior IAS officers to receive leaders of opposition parties who attended the two-day meeting in Bengaluru on July 17 and 18. The BJP leaders demanded to know under what rule the IAS officers were deputed to received leaders like RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and others.
The ruling Congress insisted that the BJP should move a motion in the House before raising the issue, but the opposition did not relent. A meeting in the Speaker’s chamber could also not get the BJP leaders to change their mind.
Later, in the evening, the BJP presented a no-confidence letter to the Assembly secretary against the Speaker and seeking U T Khader’s removal from the post. The petition bore the signatures of BJP leaders and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy too.
The opposition leaders alleged that they were being browbeaten and that the action of the Speaker was murder of democracy. “The people will teach a lesson to this Hitler regime”, they said. They also staged a protest outside the Vidhana Soudha.