Gandhinagar: Leader of Opposition in Gujarat
Assembly, Shaktisinh Gohil was suspended on Friday for the entire
budget session, following his refusal to tender an apology in
the House, over his remarks on nexus between the government
and Adani Group.
Soon after the Question Hour, Minister of State for
Legislative Affairs Pradipsinh Jadeja moved a motion that
Gohil be suspended till he apologises to the House for his
alleged remarks made two days ago in the state assembly.
The motion further said if Gohil does not tender his
apology to the House he should be suspended for the entire
budget session, ending on March 30.
Speaker Ganpat Vasava took the motion to voice vote and it
was passed with majority amid opposition from Congress MLAs.
Gohil had on Wednesday, alleged that government was
"working in collusion" with Gujarat-based Adani Group to which
Parliamentary affairs minister Diliip Sanghani had taken
exception, saying it was a personal remark against him, and
demanded that Gohil apologise to the House, if not to him.
Speaker Vasava ruled the same as it was a personal remark,
but the Leader of Opposition refused to apologise, saying he
never made any personal remark.
In the last two days, proceedings of the state assembly
were disrupted time and again on the same issue and the
Speaker has adjourned the House six times in the two days.
Gohil had demanded that a three-member panel of state
Congress chief Arjun Modhvadiya, Sanghani and the Speaker
should recheck the house record, and decide on the issue.
However, Speaker had rejected his demand by saying that he has
given his ruling on the issue and the Leader of assembly has
to follow it.
Miffed, the Congress moved a no-confidence motion against
the Speaker yesterday. The motion, which was signed by 19 MLAs
has to be tabled in the House in next 14 days as per rule.
After coming out of the House, Gohil told media persons
that there is no question of apologising for the remarks as it
has already been removed from the records of proceedings by
the Speaker himself.
"This is murder of democracy there is no such rule in the
rule books of the assembly to force a member to apologise," he
said adding today`s incident was unprecedented.
He further alleged that Jadeja was acting at the instance
of chief minister Narendra Modi. He further said that this was
an attempt to get the entire Opposition out of the House so
that the no confidence motion against the Speaker which the
Congress had moved yesterday becomes invalid.
"But I have persuaded my colleagues not to walk out of
the House and remain present during the proceedings," he said.
When asked what was the reason behind the move, Gohil
said that the government wanted to stop me from exposing their
nexus with the Adani group. "They knew that I had explosive
material in this regard which I would have brought it in the
house in the next 30 days of the session."
Gohil further said he would not seek any legal recourse on
this and make an appeal to the people of Gujarat on this
issue.
PTI
