Congress threatens movement unless suspension of its MLA from Assembly not withdrawn

Agartala: Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee threatened to launch a statewide movement against the suspension of senior Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman on Friday from the ongoing budget session and demanded to revoke the order respecting democracy, said Congress state president Asish Kumar Saha here on Saturday.

He alleged that without any ground just based on anticipation Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha proposed the speaker suspend Roy Barman and accordingly, he was suspended for the remaining days of the assembly session, which set a bad precedent in the history of Tripura and reflected how BJP misuse the power.

“The ruling BJP has been afraid of a united voice of opposition in the assembly and Sudip Roy Barman known to be an articulate parliamentarian raised his voice seeking action against BJP MLA Jadab Lal Nath who was caught watching pornography during the assembly session three months ago and in last four months of BJP government there was allegation of corruption and maladministration and ruling party anticipated the possible heat; so illegally suspended Roy Barman,” Saha alleged.

Being a senior politician and his grassroots level connection, Roy Barman has already unearthed multi-crore rupees in corruption in agriculture, drinking water and sanitation, education, and many other departments, which he scheduled to highlight in the assembly but a couple of corrupt ministers used Chief Minister in the illegal dirty game with no basis, he stated.

“It is clear from the action that ministers and MLAs of the ruling party are not able to face Roy Barman in the assembly for their misdeed in the last four months. That is why, a false allegation was labelled against him and without any procedure, he was removed from the house. But they must know, we shall expose them in public and compel them to step down,” Saha pointed out.

He said this is the first instance in Tripura’s history where a senior opposition member was suspended on the flimsy ground of an imaginary story without any investigation and justification.

The speaker on Friday afternoon suspended Sudip Roy Barman from the assembly for the whole budget session for his alleged use of offensive language indicating a legislator of the treasury bench. Barman’s words that had been expunged from the assembly records had some words that drew an analogy to a four-footed animal.

Even as Barman repeatedly pleaded with the Speaker’s 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, something that Opposition TIPRA Motha and CPI (M) have also demanded the Speaker to withdraw the suspension for the interest of democracy. Because Roy Barman neither named anybody nor indicated any legislator. And the law cannot make a stand based on assumption and it is unfortunate, said the leader of the opposition Animesh Debbarma.