BENGALURU: BJP legislators on Friday accused Assembly Speaker UT Khader of being partial to Congress members in the House. They claimed that the speaker initiates disciplinary action only against the legislators from Opposition parties for acts such as disrupting House proceedings. Some BJP MLAs were suspended in the past for such acts.
The speaker doesn’t act against ruling Congress MLAs for similar actions in the House, they alleged, referring to Thursday’s incident.
They demanded that disciplinary action be taken against Congress legislators for “insulting” the governor.
Raising the issue in the Assembly, Leader of Opposition R Ashoka alleged that Congress legislators insulted Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot during the joint session of the legislature. “When he left the House, nobody, including the speaker, accompanied him.
Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil stated that the governor ran away from the House. This is an insult to the governor, who is the head of the state. When some Congress legislators tried to prevent the governor from leaving the House, you, as the speaker, should have taken action. We have evidence and videos of the incident. Initiate action against them,’’ he said.
As per rule, the head of the House should take action within 24 hours. “But here, no action has been taken by the speaker even after 24 hours. Even you (Khader) will be accused of siding with the ruling party legislators,’’ Ashoka said.
Senior BJP MLA V Sunil Kumar said maintaining the House protocol is members’ responsibility. But this has been violated. “You (Khader) became speaker in 2023 and in your first session, you suspended nine BJP MLAs for creating ruckus in the House and then last year, 18 MLAs from BJP were suspended for six months.
Now, you allowed the ruling Congress MLAs to be unruly and insult the governor. Whenever Congress MLAs demand, you suspend BJP members immediately. The speaker only speaks on behalf of the government,’’ he alleged.
“When the governor did not read the speech prepared by the government, the ruling Congress insulted him,’’ he said. BJP MLA Suresh Kumar said, “What if something bad had happened to the governor that day?” Khader, however, reserved his ruling on the matter despite BJP legislators’ demand for it the same day.
Announcing his decision, the speaker advised the legislators that they should rise above party politics when it comes to honouring the dignity of the House.
