CPI(M) claims Tripura Speaker partial, boycotts remaining days of assembly session

Agartala, Mar 26 (PTI) The opposition CPI(M) in Tripura on Wednesday announced that its MLAs would boycott the remaining days of the budget session of the assembly, accusing Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen of being partisan.

The seven-day budget session which commenced on March 21 entered its third day on Wednesday.

The Left party's legislators' announcement came after Sen rejected a privilege motion moved by Leader of the Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury of the CPI(M), while accepting another by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ratan Lal Nath on technical grounds.

Soon after the Question Hour, the Speaker said he received two motions for alleged breach of privilege by Nath and Chaudhury.

“Under the Rule of Assembly proceedings, the Speaker can allow only one privilege motion in a day. Since I have received the privilege motion submitted by the parliamentary affairs minister first, I will allow it. I am rejecting the privilege motion submitted by Chaudhury,” he said.

Angered by the Speaker’s decision, CPI(M) MLAs started raising slogans against him.

The issue has its genesis in Nath's alleged racist remarks against Chaudhury, a tribal leader, in the House on Monday.

The leader of the opposition moved the privilege motion claiming that Nath had made a "derogatory, abusive and racial" comment against "myself, my family and my community".

In his privilege motion against the CPI(M)'s mouthpiece in the state, Nath alleged that the newspaper published a "deliberately motivated" report on his remark.

The parliamentary affairs minister read his motion against the editor of the CPI(M) mouthpiece.

“My words have been deliberately given a communal angle, spreading a hateful provocation in a highly planned manner,” he said.

Angry CPI(M) MLAs rushed to the well and staged protests accusing the Speaker of being partial. They later staged a walkout.

Later, the leader of the opposition told reporters in his chamber that the CPI(M), the main opposition in the 60-member Assembly, will boycott the remaining days of the ongoing Budget session.

“We are elected by the people to raise their problems in the Assembly but unfortunately the opposition is not allowed to speak for the public interest. The Speaker is trying to suppress the voice of the opposition. This is a black day for the democracy,” Chaudhury said.

He said, “The Speaker is supposed to discharge his duties like an umpire (in a cricket match), but he himself is playing for the ruling party and is trying to score. Since we are not allowed to speak in the House, the CPI(M) legislature party will boycott the remaining days of the Budget session”.

Responding to CPI(M)'s decision, senior Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman said, “This is a shame that the main opposition party will boycott the remaining day of the session pointing finger at the Speaker. I request Chief Minister Manik Saha to intervene in the matter”. PTI PS NN

Source: PTI