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POLITICS

ttar Pradesh chief min- inside the House, he should be allowed to running NGOs. “If corrective measures
ister Yogi Adityanath is do so but Khanna insisted that the party against bureaucracy have not been tak-
heading to face leader- would deal withthe issue at its internal en then government has to face a lot of
ship challenges as voices level. difficulties,”he added. He demanded fair
U of dissent within his leg- As the opposition lawmakers entered probe against the NGOs run by the wives
islatures started unifying publically. the Well of theHouse insupport of the BJP of officers and ministers and their as-
The Bharatiya Janata Party govern- MLA, the House was adjourned for the sets. He said, “I have no doubts about the
ment faced most embarrassing situ- day. But majority of the ruling party leg- honesty of chief minister and have never
ation on the opening day of winter islators refused to come out and entered taken a single rupee as commission but
session of the state Assembly when the lobby of Treasury benches and sat on in my city officers are taking 18-20 per-
hundreds of lawmakers including a symbolic dharna. As the word spread, cent commission in public works. I am
its own staged a dharna in support of opposition lawmakers also joined them. shocked that I have been declared crimi-
BJP legislator from Loni (Ghaziabad) Two ministers, including Deputy CM nal by the officers but you all know my
Nand Kishore Gujjar, who wanted to Dinesh Sharma, met the agitating legis- city is run by Mafias.”
raise the issue of his ‘persecution by lators and asked them to endthe protest, Later the BJP leadership swung into
officials’ in the House, but was de- but they refused tobudge and sought an damage control mode allowing outburst
nied the opportunity. assurance that the DM and SSP of Ghazi- of BJP legislatures to express their griev-
The entire opposition includ- abad would be brought in the House and ances in front of chief minister Yogi Adi-
ing Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Sa- punished. tyanath and BJP state’s organisational
maj Party and Congress, joined secretary Sunil Bansal in a small groups.
hands in support for the legisla- The meeting continued till late night on
tor’s ‘dignity’and participated in The entire opposition December 18. Most of the MLAs have
his protest.They raised slogans like including Samajwadi echoed similar problems as officers ig-
“Vidhayak ekta Zindabad (hail MLA nore their opinions and recommenda-
unity)” were raised in the well of the Party, Bahujan Samaj tions relating to local public issues.
house. It took four hours and the in- Party and Congress, Another MLA Shyam Prakash tweet-
tervention of senior UP government ed, “The MLAs must have their associa-
ministers and the Speaker himself to joined hands in tion to protect their existence and rights
end the situation. support for the as right from peon to IAS and Home
“The Samajwadi Party isstaging Gaurds to IPS have their say through
dharna in support of the BJP legisla- legislator’s ‘dignity’ their unions. Today MLAs in politics have
tor. In a state ifa lawmaker is being and participated in become a weakest lot.”
subjected to humiliation by officials, The controversy over Gujjar has been
itshows the quality of governance his protest raging forover a fortnight. On Decem-
there,” said Leader of Opposition ber1, he was issued a show-cause notice
Ram Govind Chaudhary. for alleged anti-party statements after
Gujjar, a controversial lawmaker, The high drama continued all the day a police casewas filed against him for
had earlier alleged that food inspec- after ameeting was called at the Speak- thrashing a government official and
tor Ashutosh Singh had misbehaved er’s chamber where assurance was his personal secretary wasalso named
with him and claimed that the of- given to the agitating lawmakers. “We in that case. Interestingly, as the notice
ficer wasvery close to the Chief have been assured that the DM and SSP was issued on November 29, Gujjar re-
Minister and tried to browbeat him. of Ghaziabad would be summoned and leased a three-page letter written to the
“Some senior party leaders were be- prosecuted inside the House,” Gujjar told ChiefMinister about a threat to hislife
hind this drama,” the lawmaker al- media in the corridors of Vidhan Sabha. and alleged that some corrupt officers
leged. He wanted to raise theissue in He further said that he got support from and party leaderswere planning to kill
the Assembly on the inaugural day the entire House as it as an issue of MLAs. him. Gujjar even mentioned about an
of the winter session after question “Many BJP leaderswho too are facing attack on his life in which hemiracu-
hour. He tried to raise the issue but harassment from the officials also joined lously escaped. In June 2018, four bike
the Speaker Hriday Narain Dikshit me in the protest,” he narrated, adding borne persons had fired at the vehicle
did not allow him. Even Parliamen- that he would be allowed tospeak on the of Nand Kishore Gujjar in Sahibabad of
tary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna issue on December 18. Ghaziabad. However, security person-
asked him to sit down. Next day BJP MLA Gujjar alleged nel attached with Gujjar retaliated and
Intervening in the matter the that large-scale corruption has become rescued him.
Leader of Opposition said that if a order of the day in Ghaziabad. Offic-
lawmaker wanted to raise the issue- ers are taking bribe and their wives are LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM

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