Congress' 'friend' Chautala's INLD once opposed land allotment to Rajiv Gandhi Trust

Om Prakash Chautala's INLD had in 2013 created a storm in the Haryana Assembly over what it termed the "illegal" allotment of land to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust.

Chandigarh: Though Om Prakash Chautala and Congress are now bedfellows, the former's INLD once created a storm in the Haryana Assembly over what it termed the "illegal" allotment of land to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust.

The issue created headlines way back in 2013 when the INLD joined hands with the BJP to protest against the allotment of land to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust by the Haryana government.

The issue saw the opposition party BJP staging a walkout and INLD MLAs being physically removed from the House for disrupting the proceedings. The uproar began when the BJP opposed the Haryana Appropriation Bill and Anil Vij, one of its MLAS, demanded a discussion on the alleged "irregularities" pointed out by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its report regarding the allotment of land to the trust for setting up an eye hospital at Ullahwas village in Gurgaon district.

Opposing the bill, Vij had then cited the CAG report, which had found that the land was ''illegally'' given to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust by Haryana government. However, BJP's demand for a discussion was categorically turned down by the Speaker, who said, ''House is not the proper forum for discussing the CAG report."

Speaker Kuldeep Sharma then asked Vij to sit down, but when the BJP MLA refused to do so, he ordered the marshals to remove him from the House. Defending the government, then Haryana Parliamentary Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala brushed aside BJP's charge of the state government "gifting land worth crore of rupees to its near and dear ones."

With the BJP leading the Opposition attack on the Haryana govt, INLD MLAs led by Abhay Chautala and Ram Pal Majra too pressed for a discussion on the CAG report but it was rejected by the Speaker. When Chautala and Majra refused to budge, Speaker Sharma directed the marshals to remove them from the house. Upset with this, all INLD MLAs and one SAD MLA trooped to the Well of the House and began raising slogans.

As the mayhem continued, the Speaker named all the protesting INLD MLAs for obstructing the functioning of the House. Then Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda too slammed the opposition parties, including BJP and INLD, of hampering the Assembly work by unnecessarily raking up unimportant issues.