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Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Uddhav Thackeray.(Express Archive) After the Opposition termed the suspension of 12 BJP MLAs from Maharashtra Assembly “the murder of democracy”, Shiv Sena Wednesday hit back, asking if the Governor “suppressing” the government’s list of 12 names for the Vidhan Parishad for eight months was also the murder of democracy.
The editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana said it is not clear why the Opposition in Maharashtra is “taking a stand against the Maratha and OBC community in the state” by siding with the Centre. “In this, the Opposition lost 12 of its MLAs for one year. Nothing can be done about it. The Opposition feels this is the murder of democracy. But the Governor has suppressed the list (sent by the MVA government) of 12 nominated members for a year. Isn’t that a murder of democracy?” asked the editorial.
On November 6, 2020, a delegation of MVA ministers, comprising Nawab Malik (NCP), Anil Parab (Shiv Sena) and Amit Deshmukh (Congress), met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan and handed over the list of 12 names to be nominated as members of the legislative council through the Governor quota. The Governor has not taken a decision on it yet.
The editorial further said that legislators have been suspended earlier too. “Congress-NCP’s 17 legislators were suspended in 2017 when (Devendra) Fadnavis was the Chief Minister. Nobody then thought that it was a murder of democracy,” remarked the editorial.
On Monday, the 12 BJP legislators allegedly misbehaved in the House and used abusive language against the speaker in the chair Bhaskar Jadhav. The conflict began when senior NCP minister Chhagan Bhujbul stood up to introduce a resolution in the legislative assembly seeking the release of empirical data about Other Backward Classes by the Centre to provide political reservation to the community in state local bodies.
Even before Bhujbal read out the resolution, the leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis raised a point of order. Jadhav allowed Fadnavis to speak on the issue. By this time, some BJP legislators had entered into the well of the House. Subsequently, amid the din, Jadhav asked Bhujbal to table the resolution. However, BJP MLAs reached the speaker’s podium and tried to pull his mike and mace. While the resolution was passed amid the chaos, Jadhav adjourned the house for 10 minutes.
At this, Fadnavis and a group of legislators entered the speaker’s chamber, where, Jadhav alleged, they misbehaved and threatened him.
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