Agartala: Senior Congress leader and MLA Sudip Roy Barman was suspended from attending the ongoing budget session after a use of “offensive language”, during the first day of the session on Friday.
Barman’s statement was expunged from the assembly records as he used words that drew an analogy to a four-footed animal during the first half of the day. Offended by the statement, senior members of the treasury bench demanded strict action against the legislator.
Even as Barman repeatedly pleaded with the Speaker of innocence and claimed that he did not intend to insult anyone, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sushanta Chowdhury, ARDD Minister Sudhangshu Das and Chief Whip Kalyani Roy continued to condemn his statement and demanded an unconditional apology and withdrawal of the statement. However, Barman refused to budge.
Later, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha raised the demand for Barman’s suspension for the whole session. The appeal was granted by the Speaker and Barman was barred from joining the proceedings of the house for the remaining three days under rule 330 of the proceedings.
“The whole country is witness to a shameful chapter of this august house. The way a member of the house repeatedly used the name of an animal in order to insult others is really unacceptable. This is why I demand that the member be suspended for the whole session”, the Chief Minister told the Speaker.
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Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition, Animesh Debbarma said, “The moral of a story has different meanings to different people. If people start taking the characters of all stories seriously and perceive themselves as one of the characters of the stories, I think no member should be allowed to tell stories during the proceedings”.
Speaker Biswabandhu Sen took strong exception to the point and said that as a member of the civil society, elected representatives should understand what sort of stories should be told in the house.
Also Read | Tripura: Bedlam on first day of Budget session, 5 MLAs suspended