Congress MLAs today walked out of Gujarat assembly stating that objectionable references were made about its leader in the house.
Congress MLAs had raised the issue of independent functioning of media and journalists' plight during discussion on provision of funds to the state's Information and Publicity Department.
Responding to this, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Pradeepsinh Jadeja said that the Central government was issuing advertisements in the media about their achievements with photographs of those who were not even holding Constitutional posts. He was referring to Congress president Sonia Gandhi but without taking her name.
When Jadeja repeated his statement, Congress MLAs took an objection and demanded that Speaker Vaju Vala should expunge his words.
However, Vala allowed the proceedings to continue, following which, they walked out of the house.
Jadeja said that under Congress rule in the state, the plight of media was even worse and added that the party, which failed to protect journalists during its regime, had no right to talk about the plight of journalists.
Later, Congress MLAs claimed that they were demanding discussion under Rule 47 but the Speaker did not allow raising the Point of Order and was functioning in an autocratic manner.
"We raised the issue of media's independence and censorship by the state government but the Speaker did not allow us to raise the Point of Order and so we boycotted the Assembly session," said party chief whip, Balwantsinh Rajput.
