Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Vijender Gupta on Friday created uproar by perching himself atop a desk of the Delhi assembly protesting “gagging” of opposition voice, an act which drew widespread condemnation with Speaker Ram Niwas Goel terming it as the “most shameful” which he said “disgraced” the House.
Gupta was demanding that a fact-finding committee report on an alleged water tanker scam during Sheila Dikshit’s tenure be made public and a calling attention motion on the matter. Speaker Ram Niwas Goel rejected the demand.
Lashing out at Gupta, leader of opposition in the assembly, over his “shocking” conduct, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal demanded that the Delhi government be given control over the Anti-Corruption Bureau, which he said will ensure the jailing of the former’s wife over her role in an alleged pension scam and also investigate the alleged tanker scam within a week.
“BJP has no respect for democratic institutions like legislative assembly. Look at BJP’s leader of opposition conduct. Shocking. Absolutely shocking,” Kejriwal tweeted.
“This is unprecedented and the most shameful act by a legislator, who is no less the leader of the opposition, in democratic India’s history. You not only hijack all the time but lower the dignity of the House by breaking microphone, hurling abuses at women MLAs,” Goel said.
Gupta did not relent despite Goel’s admonishment and kept standing for nearly 10 minutes, at one point, Gupta called marshals, although they were not used later.
The second day of the special session on Friday, convened to discuss issues plaguing the municipal corporations, also saw Kejriwal hitting out at the BJP-controlled MCDs saying that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be unable to get a balcony constructed at his residence without paying bribe to the civic bodies.
Kejriwal said that Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley do not trust the MCDs since they know that the funds allocated by the Centre will anyway be diverted. The Aam Aadmi Party allocated much more funds to the civic bodies than Congress and BJP did when they were in power.
“Despite the fact that BJP runs the civic bodies, I challenge Modi ji to get a balcony of his residence constructed without paying bribe to them.
“If Modi ji succeeds to get the balcony built, I will quit politics. They (BJP) raise slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’. Even God will fail to construct a house without paying bribe in Delhi,” the CM said.
He said should be the ACB be handed over to the AAP government, “Almost 95 per cent of the MCD councillors will be behind bars so would most of former BJP and Congress MLAs.”
Kejriwal said his government gave Rs 702 and Rs 1,206 crore to the East and North MCD respectively in the year 2015-16. BJP had allocated Rs 441 and Rs 848 crore to the North and East Municipal Corporation of Delhi in 2014-15 when Delhi was under President’s rule while Congress had provided Rs 416 and Rs 1051 in 2013-14 to the respective bodies, he said.
“They keep on demanding money and more money. If you (MCD) are unable to pay even salaries of your workers, while your leaders drive around in Mercedes and build bungalows, then resign,” he said.
In his response over Gupta’s allegations that AAP was saving Dikshit on the alleged tanker scam, Kejriwal said he was ready to provide him the report of the Delhi Jal Board fact-finding committee report tomorrow itself, but “you also give me facts about your wife’s role in the pension scam.”
This enraged Gupta to an extent that he left his chair and stood up on his desk, accusing the AAP of “muzzling the voice” of opposition.
“We have the strongest resolve against corruption, so much so that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scared of it. So he sent paramilitary forces to the ACB and took over it on June 8 last year. Everyone knows Congress and BJP has the relationship of a husband and wife,” Kejriwal alleged.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia dared the BJP to write to Lt Governor Najeeb Jung demanding the matter to be investigated. Goel termed Gupta’s table-climbing act as “unprecedented” and a “shame”.
