Assam govt distances itself from 2 MLAs' move to remove

Assam government today distanced itself from two Congress MLAs' reported move of taking legal opinion to remove Assembly Speaker Pranab Kumar Gogoi saying "it is not involved in the exercise".
"The government is not related to this (taking legal opinion to remove the Speaker) and not involved with the two MLAs," Assam Parliamentary Affairs minister Nilamani Sen Deka told the House.
Deka was responding to the issue raised by Congress MLA and his former ministerial colleague Himanta Biswa Sarma during the Zero Hour.
Sarma raised the topic by showing a news report published in a national daily which stated that two Congress MLAs have taken legal opinion by spending lakhs of rupees on how to remove the Speaker.

"I have full respect and faith on the impartiality of the Speaker. I just want a simple clarification from the government on this news," Sarma said.
On this, Deka initially stated that "the news was completely false, baseless and fabricated" and such reports are "against parliamentarian democracy".

Sarma then challenged the minister to "bring a privilege motion against the newspaper for publishing a false story".
"Instead of giving a clarification, you (Deka) are shooting the messenger. Just to inform you, the paper said they have the xerox copy (of the legal advice)," Sarma, who is the leader of the Congress dissident MLAs, said.

Then Deka said "As MLAs, they have personal right to take legal opinion."
Sarma then again shot back saying, "you are talking about an even more dangerous thing and contradicting what Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had said regarding sanctity of the Speaker's chair in the Parliament and state Assemblies. Why don't you give a simple clarification?".
The argument settled down after Deka said that government is not at all involved in trying to remove the Speaker.