The Karnataka legislative assembly on Wednesday witnessed chaotic and unruly scenes as angry Bharatiya Janata Party legislators tore copies of bills and the agenda, and threw them at the deputy Speaker, who was presiding, following which Speaker U T Khader suspended 10 of them for the remainder of the session.
In turn, MLAS of the Opposition BJP and Janata Dal-Secular gave a notice of no confidence against Speaker Khader to the assembly secretary. The turn of events unfolded following both the opposition parties staging a protest in the assembly against the Congress government for allegedly “misusing” IAS officers to work for the meeting of leaders of 26 Opposition parties, which was held in Bengaluru in the past two days.
The 10 BJP legislators who have been suspended for the reminder of the session for their “indecent and disrespectful conduct” in the house are — C N Ashwath Narayan, V Sunil Kumar, R Ashoka, Araga Jnanendra (all former ministers), D Vedavyasa Kamath, Yashpal Suvarna, Dheeraj Muniraj, A Umanath Kotian, Arvind Bellad and Y Bharath Shetty.
They were suspended after the house adopted a motion to this effect. The assembly session began on July 3 and is slated to end on July 21.
A few of the suspended BJP MLAs were forcibly taken out of the assembly chambers by marshals. BJP legislators staged a protest against the speaker’s decision to suspend the 10 party MLAs, first outside his office and then at the Vidhana Soudha west gate. They were shortly joined by JD-S leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy. Senior BJP member Basanagouda Patil Yatnal was taken to hospital after he fell ill during the protest. “He is stable and doing fine,” BJP MLA Ashwath Narayan said after visiting him in hospital.
The protesting BJP MLAs, including former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, were detained and taken away by the police.
