Tehelka over tehelka, Opp suspended

Sandesh Prabhudesai
19 March 2001  

The opposition members were suspended from the Assembly for three days on the first day of the budget session in Goa today, after they totally paralysed business of the House over the tehelka.com revelation that has shaken the whole country.

After passing the resolution of suspension moved by BJP chief minister Manohar Parrikar amidst chaos and slogan shouting, speaker Pratapsing Rane suspended 11 members, including nine belonging to the Congress and two to the Goa People's Congress.

Dayanand Narvekar, the third GPC member as well as Dr Wilfred de Souza, the sole NCP member, however did not participate in the pandemonium raised by the opposition.

While refusing to admit the adjournment motion moved by opposition leader Luizinho Faleiro to discuss the impact of tehelka revelation on Goa as well as the deteriorated law and order situation in the state, Rane adjourned the House four times.

As the speaker insisted on going ahead with the official business, the opposition members entered the well and staged a dharna, shouting slogans against the BJP and its former president Bangaru Laxman.

As the members refused to leave the House even after they were suspended for three days, Rane adjourned the session for the day, after getting the motion of thanks to the governor's address passed amidst total chaos.

While the Congress and the GPC members were shouting slogans against the BJP, they were also seen laughing and joking with the ruling benches throughout the protest, especially when the House was adjourned.

In fact Congress MLA Churchill Alemao once refused to join the dharna in the well for the third time and had to be compelled to join his party members. He later on said the BJP was also doing good work, which he did not want to oppose.

Rumours are making round that the remaining three GPC members, who had split from the Congress in November 1999 to form a short-lived coalition government with the BJP till October last, would join the original party any moment. Even then, Narvekar did not join hands with his two colleagues to support the protest today.

Faleiro later on demanded that the BJP government at the centre as well as in Goa should resign as the bribes taken by the party leaders must have been used to form a government in the tourist state.

Countering the allegation that the BJP has sold the nation by getting involved in the shady defence deals, chief minister Parrikar commented in the House that the Congress had not left anything to sell.

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