Cong MLA apologises after slitting palm in Assam Assembly

Congress MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi, who slit his palm at the Assam Assembly premises to protest against the state government, tendered a written apology on Wednesday.

The legislator of Mariani constituency in Jorhat district on Tuesday cut his palm with a blade and wrote his protests in blood against the state government's alleged move to sell some of its defunct enterprises.

Reading out his apology in the House on Wednesday, Kurmi said the method of his protest was not the right way to register his disagreement with the state government.

He, however, maintained that it was important to protest the state government's alleged move to sell off Nagaon and Cachar Paper Mills, Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Ltd, Halmari Tea Estate in Dibrugarh and Ailabari Tea Estate in Karimganj.

Speaker Hitesh Goswami said Kurmi had given the apology letter on Tuesday during a meeting on the issue with the leader of opposition in the House, Debabrata Saikia and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan at his chamber in the Assembly premises.

Kurmi had to be administered three stitches on his palm due to his act.

He had told reporters that the Assam government will not be allowed to "sell the state's future".

"All these assets on Assam' soil are linked to the state's honour, people's means of livelihood and the state's future... They cannot be allowed to be sold," he said.

The Congress and the BJP MLAs had traded charges when the issue was raised in the House.

Saikia said he was not a part of Kurmi's protest and was not responsible for what the Congress MLAs do outside the House.

Kurmi, who is often termed 'quirky' and 'maverick' for his protest styles, had in an earlier instance protested the rise in the price of onions by wearing a garland made of the vegetable and lying at the entrance of the House.

On the first day of the Assembly's Winter session on November 28, Kurmi had staged a sit-in with placards against the shutdown of two tea estates.

Later, he had participated in opposition protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and the National Register of Citizens wearing a garland of onions.