BHUBANESWAR: The budget session of the Assembly started on a noisy note on Saturday with the morning part of the first day witnessing several adjournments over Nupur Sharma’s controversial statement on Prophet Mohammed and Supreme Court’s admonition of her on Friday.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, leader of the Congress Legislature Party Narasingha Mishra sought the views of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sharma’s statement.“Nupur Sharma was the spokesperson of BJP. The Supreme Court reprimanded her on Friday and also criticised the political party indirectly. The BJP should be held responsible for the countrywide outrage over the statement. The party cannot escape its responsibility,” he said.
His statement provoked the saffron party members who also stood up near their seats and hurled allegations against the Congress.Referring to the incident at Udaipur in Rajasthan where a tailor was killed in a barbaric manner, deputy leader of the BJP Legislature Party Bishnu Charan Sethi asked whether the Chief Minister of that State had resigned.
Questioning how can there be a debate over Sharma’s remarks as she is not a member of the Odisha Assembly, Sethi said, BJP has already suspended her and she has also apologised for the statement. Sethi also targeted the Congress over the issue of exodus of Kashmir pandits. Members of both Congress and BJP rushed into the well of the House as slogan shouting continued over the issue.
Speaker Bikram Keshari Arukha, who for the first time presided over the House after his election last month, said that there should not be discussion on a person who is not its member and not present. Congress members intensified their protest after the Speaker’s statement. Unable to conduct the business, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings twice for 10 minutes each and later till 4 pm.