NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party and BJP sparred in Delhi assembly on Monday after the ruling party legislators passed a censure motion against the latter’s state unit president for allegedly making derogatory remarks against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
There were noisy scenes when the MLAs of both the parties stormed the well of the House, shouting slogans against their opponents. Speaker Ram Niwas Goel suspended three BJP MLAs — Ajay Mahawar, Anil Bajpai and Jitender Mahajan — for a brief period amid vociferous protests by AAP over Adesh Gupta’s remarks. The three BJP MLAs were told to leave the House after they stood on the benches. The House proceedings had to be adjourned twice amid the din.
Moving the censure motion against Gupta, AAP MLA Mohinder Goel said such a motion against the Delhi BJP unit president was necessitated by the latter’s derogatory remarks against the CM. “We are good people, our volunteers are shareef (virtuous). Otherwise, remarks of this sort deserve the speaker to be beheaded. The leader of the opposition should tender an apology,” fumed Goel said. He also dared Gupta to make similar remarks against the CMs of BJP-ruled states.
The Speaker accepted the censure motion moved by Goel after the House reassembled around noon and it was passed by voice vote.
Leader of the opposition Ramvir Bidhuri said, “If any indecent words have been used by anybody, I condemn it. If there is any truth to the allegation against Adesh Gupta, I will apologise to the Delhi CM with folded hands. But if the Delhi BJP president has condemned any leader of our party, Mohinder Goel will have to apologise in the House,” Bidhuri contended.
The Speaker asked Bidhuri to show him the video of the remarks later, and allowed the three suspended BJP MLAs to re-join the House proceedings.
Bidhuri later said that the purported video did not have anything for which the BJP state chief needed to be censured for. “I met the Speaker and showed him the said video. In fact, our party chief himself can be heard saying in the video that it was not the BJP’s culture to use such words. Somebody else made such remarks against the chief minister and our state president has been condemned for that,” claimed Bidhuri.
In a video reaction, Gupta also said that he did not approve of using such language against anyone. “Using derogatory language against anyone is not BJP’s culture,” Gupta said. He, however, added that Kejriwal should seek forgiveness of the people for making a mockery of the pain of Kashmiri Pandit community. “AAP should remember what happened to those who insulted the Hindus,” Gupta added.
