Suspension of 3 Cong MLAs revoked by Haryana Speaker

Chandigarh, Aug 26 (PTI) Haryana Assembly Speaker KanwarPal today revoked the suspension of three Congress members whowere suspended for six months from the Assembly in the Budgetsession held last March. The decision to revoke the suspension came on the firstday of the Monsoon session of Haryana Assembly after formerChief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda accepted that the copiesof Governor’s address should not have been torn up, even astreasury and opposition benches exchanged barbs over thisissue. Three Congress MLAs, Kuldeep Sharma, Jagbir Singh Malikand Jaiveer Singh, were suspended for six months from theAssembly in the Budget session held in March for "disruptingthe Governor’s Address and tearing up its copies". After the House proceedings began, the Congress MLARandeep Singh Surjewala requested the Speaker to revoke thesuspension of his party’s three members. INLD leader Jaswinder Sandhu also supported the demandand urged the Speaker to call back the suspended leaders. However, BJP members including Gian Chand Gupta, CaptainAbhimanyu and Anil Vij stressed that the members of theopposition party should know that the dignity of the Houseshould be maintained at any cost. "It is necessary to maintain the dignity of the House andthe decision taken by the Speaker was right," said Gupta whois MLA from Panchkula. Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu said, "what Congressmembers did was wrong which is a serious matter." The Speaker also justified the decision to suspend threeMLAs. "If you feel they committed mistake then House canreview the decision," he asked Surjewala. Surjewala then said that "arrogance of majority" was notright and sought revocation of the suspension, saying thatthe three Congress members did not do anything wrong. To this, Vij took a dig at Surjewala and said, "I amhappy that my friends in Congress now understand the meaningof arrogance of numbers. They come to know this because ofyour (Speaker) experiment. There was a time (during previousregime) when we were not even allowed to stand in the Houseand we were even suspended while we were sitting." Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar while speaking on thisissue pointed out that democracy should not mean free forall. "There are rules in the House which need to be followed.There should not be any disruption in the discussion on theGovernor’s address and we should stay away from settingup a tradition of tearing up the copies of Governor’saddress," said leader of the House. MORE PTI CHS VJ ARK RGARK