The Hindu Business Line : Bedlam in West Bengal Assembly

There was mayhem in West Bengal Assembly here on Thursday afternoon, when Trinamool Congress members damaged property, shredded business papers and official documents, upturned desks and benches, yanked microphones off their holders and hurled broken furniture and sound-boxes at the Treasury benches.

They turned violent while walking out of the House in the course of discussions on a no-confidence motion — moved jointly by the Trinamool Congress and the Congress — against the Left Front Government. The motion was later defeated by voice vote in the absence of members of the two parties.

Total chaos

Six MLAs belonging to the Left Front, two staff of the Assembly and two journalists were injured, when members of both sides of the House came to blows even as the violence spread to the lobbies. The bedlam broke out shortly after the House convened following the afternoon recess at 1.30 p.m. and lasted nearly 20 minutes. Such large-scale vandalism, both inside and outside the House, has not been witnessed in West Bengal Assembly in recent times.

The Trinamool Congress MLAs were incensed over what they alleged was police harassment of party leader, Ms Mamata Banerjee, when she was disallowed to proceed towards Singur in Hooghly district, where she was to attend a rally opposing the setting up of a Tata Motors car manufacturing plant there. Earlier in the day, the area had been cordoned off by the district authorities, following the imposition of prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC.

A 12-hour State-wide bandh has been called by the Trinamool Congress in protest against the alleged police excesses on Ms Banerjee.

Party supporters damaged buses, set ablaze a police motor-cycle and blocked roads in parts of the city, as news of her being disallowed to go to Singur spread. She later headed for the Assembly lobbies and her arrival there only escalated the bedlam.

`No police action'

The Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who described the violence as "an unprecedented and violent expression of political desperation" denied any police-excess on Ms Banerjee. The authorities had "deployed only policewomen to turn her away from the area where prohibitory orders had been imposed".

The Speaker, Mr H.A. Halim, who had adjourned the House in the wake of the violence, returned to announce that the State Assembly would remain open to the public for six hours on Friday as "the people should know how democracy is functioning". "If such things can happen inside the House then what will happen outside," he asked. "It is unfortunate that she (Ms Banerjee) came (to the Assembly premises) and provoked it (the violence)," Mr Halim said. Security would have to be strengthened in the premises, he added.

The actions of the Trinamool Congress inside the Assembly were also strongly condemned by Mr Biman Bose, Chairman of the Left Front Committee and Secretary of the State Committee of the Communist Party of India [Marxist].

Ms Banerjee said that Friday's 12-hour bandh had been called in protest against the State Government "curbing democratic rights and against police atrocities committed on the people of the State". The Congress whose members had also walked out of the House will extend "moral support" to the bandh.

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