Har assembly spl session: Vij reminds Kiran of Emergency as she rakes up Maha developments

The Haryana assembly on Tuesday witnessed a ruckus on Tuesday during its special session on the Constitution Day with Congress member Kiran Choudhary terming the Maharashtra developments a "sad travesty" and state home minister reminding her of Emergency. "What is happening in Maharashtra, everyone can see. This is something we are reading for over the past ten days. It is a sad travesty that when constitutional heads bend backwards to please their political masters and subvert the constitution, which in itself, sir, is not correct," said Chaudhary in her speech.

Chaudhary's remarks prompted state Home Minister Anil Vij to get up and ask "why don't you talk" about June 25, 1975, "when Indira Gandhi trampled the constitution?" Arguing that Congress and Shiv Sena had got enough time to stake claim before the President's rule was imposed in Maharashtra, Vij said, "You are casting aspersion on constitutional heads, what wrong did he do? You should not make such irresponsible statements."

"On June 25, 1975, Indira Gandhi trampled the Constitution, but why don't they talk about that? People were sent behind bars, why don't you make a mention of that?" asked Vij. This led Speaker Gian Chand Gupta to ask members to stick to their speeches on the Constitution Day and not get into political controversies.

During his speech, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the discussion started on a good note but when things are linked to some incidents, controversies will get raked up. "And when you talk about incidents, there are many examples when everything was not hunky dory in Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh where the Congress ruled for so long," he said.

Khattar also recalled how former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal had managed to derail Chaudhary Devi Lal in 1979, shortly before he was to take oath as chief minister, and instead took oath himself. "Rather than going into such controversies, our focus is that the Constitution is supreme. As many as 104 amendments have taken place in our constitution, which is a testimony to the fact that the Constitution provides a way to solve things," said Khattar.

"We don't have any objection to discussions, but it's not correct if anyone takes support of incidents and refers to any party, any government or raises a question mark on anyone occupying the Constitutional post," Khattar told the House. Kiran Choudhary, however, said she was only speaking about the Constitution and not beyond this.

"We attained freedom after a great deal of struggle by our martyrs, freedom fighters and countless unsung heroes. We have to introspect and see that 70 years down the line, where are we headed. We have to uphold the constitution and see that nobody tampers with it," she said. "We are all lawmakers, we all are elected representatives and if we are not going to uphold the Constitution in letter and spirit, we will be failing in our duty to the country and to the people who have elected us," she said.

Later too, when some members tried to make references to the Maharashtra and other political developments in the past, were the speaker cut them short and asked them to stick to their speech on the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution. On the occasion, political leaders hailed B R Ambedkar.

Earlier, Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said numerous sacrifices had to be made before India attained freedom. He also touched upon the instrumental role played by his late father, Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Hooda in the Constituent Assembly after he was elected to it in 1947 from the then East Punjab.

Hooda said Chaudhary Ranbir Singh talked about minimum support price of grains for farmers, as well as the issue of the merger of Delhi with East Punjab or what he dreamt of a "Vishal Haryana". He said his father had desired that Hindi speaking areas, including some parts of western Uttar Pradesh neighbouring Haryana, should be part of a "Vishal Haryana" with Delhi as its capital with Punjabi speaking areas being part of Punjab.

About the Constitution, the former chief minister said, "following Constitution is our rashtra dharma". Reacting to Hooda's remarks on a "Vishal Haryana", Vij wondered outside the House "if the Congress has Congress has given up its claim on Chandigarh as Haryana capital that Hooda is now talking about a 'Vishal Haryana' with Delhi as its capital."

Khattar, who is also the Leader of the House, called upon the public representatives to follow the basic spirit of the Constitution. The chief minister also presented a resolution before the House on the occasion, and while detailing how the Constitution was adopted, urged all members to uphold it.

The House later passed the resolution unanimously. Among others who spoke on the occasion included Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, independent MLA and Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala, BJP's Assem Goel, Abhe Singh Yadav, Ranbir Gangwa, Congress' Geeta Bhukkal, Rao Daan Singh and Shamsher Gogi.

PTI SUN VSD RAX RAX

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)