NE NEWS SERVICE
GANDHINAGAR, MARCH 7
The Gujarat Assembly on Monday revoked the seven-day suspension of senior Congress MLA Punja Vansh after the ruling BJP accepted the request made by the opposition members.
Vansh was suspended for seven days for allegedly using unparliamentary words against Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi during the Question Hour on March 4. Later, a Congress delegation, led by Leader of the Opposition Sukhram Rathva, held a meeting with Speaker Nimaben Acharya in her cabin and requested her to revoke the suspension, Deputy LoP Shailesh Parmar said in the House on Monday.
Chief whip Pankaj Desai informed the House that the Speaker had held discussions with leaders of both the BJP and the Congress over the issue. Desai said both the parties arrived at a consensus during the meeting and Sanghavi as well as Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel have also said they do not have any problem if Vansh’s suspension is revoked.
The motion moved by the BJP to revoke Vansh’s suspension was passed unopposed in the Assembly with the support of the ruling party and Congress members present in the House. On March 4, Vansh had accused the minister of using “tapori” language in in the House, which the BJP had found derogatory and unparliamentary. Though Vansh later apologised and withdrew his remarks as directed by the Speaker, he was suspended for seven days.
During the question hour session on the third day of the budget session of the 14th Gujarat assembly, Congress legislator Harshad Ribadiya raised a query on the number of vacant posts at the animal hospitals located in Surendranagar. When Raghavji Patel, BJP minister for agriculture, was answering the question, Vansh countered him saying that the information being shared by him was not correct. To this, minister of state for home Harsh Sanghvi got up and tried to intervene. He was verbally confronted by Naushad Solanki, Congress MLA from Dasada.
Sanghvi replied to Solanki saying that the Congress will not succeed in their bullying tactics. Vansh, addressing Sanghvi, said that this was not his party office and used an unparliamentary word, which infuriated the members of the ruling party. On the speaker’s request, Punja Vansh later expressed regret over the use of the unparliamentary word. The word was expunged from the records by the speaker.
After the question hour was over, BJP whip, Pankaj Desai brought in a proposal to have Punja Vansh suspended for a period of 7 days. This was supported by the education minister, Jitu Vaghani, the former legislative affairs minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja as well as the former deputy chief minister Nitin Patel.
Responding to this, the deputy leader of the opposition, Shailesh Parmar, said, “When the member has expressed regret over his words, such proposals should be withdrawn and the ruling party should keep a broad approach towards it.”
