The West Bengal Legislative Assembly on July 31 passed a ‘motion’ condemning the violence in Manipur and urged the Government of India to take steps to restore peace in the north-eastern State.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs who participated in the debate opposed the motion which was tabled by Trinamool Congress members including Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay. BJP legislators raised slogans and tried to disrupt the speech of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Coalition will prevail
Ms. Banerjee made repeated references to Indian National Developmental Alliance, Inclusive Alliance or INDIA in her speech and said the coalition will form the next government at the Centre and restore peace in Manipur.
“The Prime Minister is unable to restore peace in Manipur, then let us (INDIA) be allowed to restore peace.” the Chief Minister said. Ms. Banerjee criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not visiting Manipur or making statements on the situation in the north eastern State.
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Describing the situation in Manipur as “shameful” particularly the sexual attacks against women, Ms. Banerjee said, “we demand a statement from the Prime Minister on the issue”. The West Bengal Chief Minister said that her government had experience in containing violence in Darjeeling and the Jangalmahal region and she was ready to offer suggestions to manage the situation in Manipur.
Discussion ‘illegal’
There were noisy scenes in the House during an hour-long debate. Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and BJP MLAs Agnimitra Paul, Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury and Shakar Ghosh participated in the debate and tried to raise the issue of violence in West Bengal particularly in the recently concluded panchayat polls. Mr. Adhikari alleged the discussion on Manipur was illegal since the Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognizance of the issue. The BJP leader also said that he will approach the Court over the issue.
Speaker Biman Banerjee said that the motion was brought under Rule 210 of the rules of procedures of conduct of business in the West Bengal Assembly. Mr. Banerjee said if the BJP legislators considered the motion illegal, why then did they participate in the discussion. The motion was passed by a voice vote.
This is not the first time the West Bengal Assembly has discussed resolutions on an issue concerning larger national politics. The State Assembly held discussions on The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 demonetisation and agrarian laws passed by the Centre which were later revoked in November 2021. The Trinamool Congress maintains a comfortable majority of over 216 MLAs in the State Assembly whose strength is 294. The number of BJP MLAs in the House stands at 70.
