Karnataka governor leaves House in huff
The governor's address to the joint session of the Karnataka legislature was marred when a member began reading a parallel address and when Opposition members raised protests and threatened to walk out. The governor abruptly ended his address mid-way and left the House.
As Governor Khursheed Alam Khan began his 24-page address to the legislature, Vatal Nagaraj of the Kannada Chaluvali Vatal party shouted, "We don't want this address," and started reading his own speech criticising the governorship.
Mallikarjuna Kharge, leader of the Opposition, also rose to his feet and said the J H Patel government had no moral right to ask the governor to address the session after losing the people's confidence in the Lok Sabha election. The government was anti-farmer as it had not responded to the problems of farmers in Bidar and Gulbarga districts, forcing some of them to commit suicide, he charged.
Members of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi criticised the address, since it had not mentioned the boundary dispute between the state and Maharashtra. The MLAs from Bidar, Syed Zulfekar Hashmi of the Bahujan Samaj Party and Bheemanna Khandre of the Congress, and three others, advanced towards the well of the House, condemning the government's attitude towards farmers growing pulses. They claimed the government were paying no attention to the plight of farmers following crop failure in the area, and demanded compensation for the farmers.
When the governor continued with his address amidst the noisy scenes, Hashmi shouted, "Shame shame".
Though Khandre threatened to stage a walkout, he did not leave the House since other Congress members did not get up to join him.
UNI
Elections '98
Tell us what you think of this report
|