Guwahati, March 31: The ruling Congress and Opposition AIUDF today vetoed a move by Speaker Pranab Kumar Gogoi to submit a report on the definition of Assamese to Dispur through the House.

Legislators from the two parties objected to submission of the Speaker's report on the ground that members of the House were not taken into confidence while preparing the report, forcing him to submit it in his personal capacity.

Soon after Gogoi read out his two-page report ( see chart), the Congress and AIUDF legislators stood up and demanded that the Speaker should not submit the report to the government without discussing the issue in the House.

Congress MLA Ardhendu Dey said since members of the House were not taken into confidence on such a sensitive issue, the Speaker's report could not be endorsed. AIUDF legislator Abdur Rahim Khan echoed Dey. Accusing the Speaker of violating Assembly rules by preparing such a report without consulting legislators of all parties, Khan demanded that the report be withdrawn immediately.

Both the MLAs demanded that the Speaker's report be expunged from today's Assembly proceedings. When Gogoi refused to do so, other Congress and AIUDF legislators, including PCC president Anjan Dutta, started protesting. They demanded that the Speaker submit the report to the government in his "personal" capacity.

The move was a follow-up to the Speaker's announcement in the Assembly on March 4 that he would initiate a wide-ranging and all-inclusive consultation to reach an acceptable definition. Members of the House had pledged their support to the initiative.

Accordingly, the Speaker held discussions with 57 organisations, including the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), several intellectuals and journalists, before preparing his report.

"We appreciate the Speaker's initiative. But I think there should not be any hurry. Since the Speaker represents the Assembly, he should consult the House before submitting such a report," veteran MLA Abdul Muhib Mazumdar said.

Though the AGP, BJP and BPF legislators supported the move, the Speaker finally said he would send the report to chief minister Tarun Gogoi. "It is up to the chief minister how he considers the report (whether in the Speaker's personal capacity or as a report of the Assembly Speaker)," he said.

An official of the secretariat said since the Speaker read out the report, it was recorded in the Assembly proceedings. "The report is now an Assembly document," he said.

The inside story

The chief minister had met the Speaker in his Assembly chamber a few days ago to dissuade him from pushing forward with the report without taking all the members of the House on board, given the sensitive nature of the issue. The Speaker, in response, said it was an impossible task given the acrimonious scenes witnessed whenever the issue was raised in the Assembly, sources said.

Over the past few days, Congress MLAs had both directly and indirectly tried to dissuade him, fearing the political impact such a move would have on the party in the 2016 Assembly polls. The party is already in the midst of a raging anti-incumbency and dissidence storm. Senior Congress leader Anil Raja said, "It was not a right move. After all, we, including the AASU, have accepted March 25, 1971, as the cut-off date. The Speaker's role is to smoothly run the House by taking all members into confidence. It could have been avoided."

Congress insiders said the proposed move would cost the party dear. "His stocks may rise but we will have a tough time (by not supporting the move). We are in a catch-22 situation. By supporting the move, we would have lost our inclusive character," one of them said. Most said the move was akin to playing with fire.

Speaker unfazed

The Speaker, son of former Assam minister Girindra Nath Gogoi, appeared unfazed over the hullabaloo surrounding his move. "I am ready to face any consequences for the sake of Assam and its interests," he told The Telegraph.

Seen by legislators from most parties as a person who is forthright and blunt in his views, the Speaker said the ruling Congress missed out on a great opportunity to regain the confidence of the people of Assam "except AIUDF and its supporters".

"I will be sending the report to the government for appropriate action," he said.

To whispers in Congress circles that he did what he did only to secure the political future of his sons with the Opposition BJP, he said, "There is no truth in that."

The budget session, which began on March 2, was adjourned sine die today.