House standoff continues over min's remark

The deadlock in the Rajasthan assembly over state minister Avinash Gehlot's remark against former prime minister Indira Gandhi and suspension of six Congress MLAs persisted on Monday, with the House witnessing repeated adjournments.

- HT Correspondent

JAIPUR:

After three adjournments, parliamentary affairs minister Jogaram Patel and others held a meeting with the Congress MLAs to resolve the issue and reached a consensus to end the deadlock.

However, when the House met again, the stalemate continued as Speaker Vasudev Devnani and Patel were not satisfied with the response of Congress legislator and PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasra.

He said Dotasra should tender an apology for his conduct in the House, but the state Congress chief insisted that the minister apologize first.

Expressing dissatisfaction with Dotasra's response, the speaker adjourned the proceedings for a fourth time for 30 minutes.

Prior to this, when the House reassembled after the third adjournment, the Congress MLAs, except six suspended legislators, returned to their seats. The suspended MLAs, including Dotasra, did not enter the House.

Leader of Opposition Tikaram Jully said that whatever happened in the House was unfortunate and urged the speaker to give a ruling so that the deadlock could be ended.

Congress MLA Rajendra Pareek said there has been a tradition of dialogue when a deadlock occurs, while Patel said the deadlock was not good.

The Speaker then called Dotasra inside the House and asked him to speak on the matter.

Dotasra said whatever happened in the House on Friday after the remark of the cabinet minister against Indira Gandhi was unfortunate and such things should not happen.

Acknowledging that he and other legislators reached the bench in front of the dais of the speaker on Friday, he said the entire episode was regrettable.

However, the Speaker said Dotasra has not expressed apology for his conduct.

The Parliamentary affairs minister also said that Dotasra should say in the House as decided in the meeting and should feel sorry for his conduct.