Stormy start to winter session of UP legislature

The Winter Session of the Uttar Pradesh Legislature got off to a stormy start on Tuesday, with the entire Question Hour being washed off in both houses amid strong protests by a united opposition on student clashes over the amended citizenship law.

As soon as proceedings began in the Assembly, Samajwadi Party and Congress members carrying placards and shouting slogans trooped into the Well of the House even as BSP lent them support from their seats.

Leader of the Opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary, who had given a notice for raising the protest against the CAA, pressed Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit to allow the matter immediately.

"Bhajapa govt mast hai, kanoon vyastha trast hai", "Nagriko ke bhedbhav band karo" (BJP govt unconcerned over poor law and order, stop discrimination against citizens) placards and tricolour were raised in the lower house with opposition members shouting "balatkarion ki sarkar, nahi chalegi" (down with government of rapists).

The Speaker, however, kept urging members to remove the placards.

With all requests to restore order failing, the Speaker adjourned the House, first for half and hour and then for the entire Question hour.

Donning red caps, the SP members squatted on the floor even during the period when the House remained adjourned.

Later when the House reassembled Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna tabled the second supplementary demands to the tune of over Rs 4,210 crore for the current fiscal.

Similar scenes were witnessed in the Legislative Council where angry opposition members protested vociferously leading to the adjournment of the entire Question Hour.

Carrying placards, Samajwadi Party and Congress members raised slogans and protested in the well of the House.

When the Assembly reassembled, LoP Ram Govind Chaudhary raised the issue of student protests in different parts of the state against the CAA and urged that the House pass a resolution urging the Central Government to withdraw the Act.

"It is after 30 years that students have come out on the streets in protest and whenever they have done so it has had a far reaching impact," Chaudhary said, recalling similar incidents in the past and said the CAA was against the soul of the Constitution.

There was a brief exchange of words between members of Treasury benches and the Speaker when he insisted that the issues in the Central list cannot be raised in the house.

Chaudhary said students' protests was in reaction to the CAA and so it will have to find a mention in the house.

Later, SP, BSP and Congress members staged a walkout expressing dissatisfaction over Parliamentary Affairs Minister's response to student clashes in Aligarh and Lucknow and other places in the state.

Earlier, Samajwadi Party members staged a protest in front of the statue of Chaudhary Charan Singh in Assembly premises and also sat on dharna holding placards denigrating the BJP government for its "anti-people policies".