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Opp walkout in House over black flag issue

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Jan 30 - Congress and AIUDF legislators today staged a walkout after Assembly Speaker Hitendranath Goswami disallowed an adjournment motion brought by the Opposition to discuss the Behali incident in which police allegedly forced a woman to take off the black jacket of her 13-month infant during a public meeting of the Chief Minister in which he was shown black flags by many.

According to media reports, police prevented everyone wearing black dress to enter the venue of the meeting as �it amounted to showing a black flag to the Chief Minister.�

After Congress legislator Abdul Khaleque raised the matter during Zero Hour, terming it as a blatant assault on the fundamental rights of the people regarding free speech and expression and also their personal choice of dress material, the House witnessed noisy scenes with members of the Opposition and Treasury benches exchanging heated words.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, while terming the incident as fabricated, said that there was no directive whatsoever from the Government banning black dress in public meeting involving the Chief Minister. �The incident is concocted and the woman removed her child�s jacket because the weather was not that cold,� he said.

When Patowary ruled out any apologies from the Government as �no such incident happened as was alleged� and that it was aimed at �tarnishing the image of the Government and the Chief Minister�, it triggered a war of words. The Speaker intervened and adjourned the House for ten minutes.

When the House resumed, the Speaker refused to allow the adjournment motion, saying that adjournment motion was an exceptional thing and that the matter raised by the Opposition could be discussed under alternative devices like discussion on the Governor�s speech and the Budget speech.

This led to a heated protest by the Opposition members and culminated with their walkout.

The Opposition members also accused the ruling party members including ministers of utterances inside the Assembly that �went against the spirit of the Constitution.�

Congress MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi who attended the Assembly in an all-black dress said that the BJP Government had the least respect for people�s rights and was acting in a dictatorial fashion.

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