In her 14 years in power, chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday faced unprecedented obstruction from BJP MLAs in the Assembly during her concluding speech on the “Bengali-phobia” resolution, resulting in over two-and-a-half hours of chaos.
Both ruling and Opposition members hurled “chor” (thief) jibes at each other in the House.
Mamata, who had begun her prescribed half-an-hour speech as the last speaker on a resolution over alleged torture of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in BJP-ruled states at 1.46pm, could finally end at 3.42pm, being forced to pause at least six times to counter the BJP’s sloganeering.
Before the start of the second half, Speaker Biman Banerjee announced the session would be for 90 minutes instead of two hours owing to an event of the Assembly staff recreation club. However, the session dragged on for nearly three hours because of the ruckus.
In a bid to allow Mamata to continue her speech amid the din, the Speaker suspended five BJP MLAs, including Opposition chief whip Shankar Ghosh and Asansol MLA Agnimitra Pal, during the second half.
The BJP later complained that two of their MLAs, including Ghosh, fell ill while security personnel physically lifted and dragged them out of the House. A Trinamool source claimed that several security staff in the Assembly were also injured amid scuffles with BJP legislators.
Sources said the BJP legislative party had decided in advance to disrupt Mamata’s speech as a strategy against Trinamool after the Speaker suspended the leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday. The BJP alleged that the ruling dispensation had deliberately kept Adhikari away from the House to give Mamata a free hand to speak on the “Bengali-phobia” issue.
Later, Adhikari said: “Today we gave a lesson to the autocratic chief minister in two-and-a-half hours. They thought that by keeping Suvendu Adhikari away, they could allow thief Mamata to score a goal in an empty field. But we gave Mamata 10 goals inside the Assembly today. She has never faced such opposition power in her 14 years and five months in office....”
When the Speaker announced Mamata’s name as the last speaker on the resolution, Paul demanded that BJP legislators also be allowed to speak. The Speaker clarified that Mamata’s name had been called and Paul’s time had lapsed.
Paul was allowed to speak after Mamata requested the Speaker on the BJPMLA’s behalf.
However, as soon as Mamata started, BJP MLAs started shouting, demanding to know why Adhikari had been suspended. Sloganeering intensified with chants on other issues, including the “SSC scam”.
Mamata sat down, waiting for the chaos to subside, while the Speaker appealed to the Opposition to allow her to speak. After 10 minutes of no change, Mamata instructed her MLAs to counter the BJP with slogans. She led chants such as “BJP chor, Modi chor, Amit Shah chor, BJP vote chor (BJP, Modi and Amit Shah thieves)”, echoed by the ruling party members.
Later, Adhikari urged people of the Modi community to lodge complaints against Mamata for attacking them. He claimed that BJP national president J.P. Nadda called him up to take stock of the situation in the Assembly.
After nearly half an hour, Mamata realised the BJP’s plan was to prevent her from delivering her speech. She then raised her voice and powered through the din with her speech.
“How dare you try to stop me from speaking about Bengalis in Bengal?” Mamata asked.
The BJP’s plan was confirmed when MLA Bankim Ghosh pulled out a khanjani (a percussion instrument) and began playing it inside the House to escalate the ruckus.
Trinamool MLAs, including Humayun Kabir and Nayana Bandopadhyay, moved into the well of the House and shouted slogans close to the BJP benches. To prevent a scuffle, Mamata came down to the well and asked her MLAs to return to their seats, even requesting the Speaker to suspend her party MLAs if they engaged in the chaos, but the sloganeering went on.
Mamata continued with her speech amid the uproar. Once she stopped, BJP MLAs staged a walkout.