'TMC misbehaved with our women MLAs'

Dipak Barman, one of the five Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs who were suspended by West Bengal assembly Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay on Monday, March 28, alleges that some Trinamool Congress MLAs and marshals misbehaved with BJP MLA Chanadana Bauri, but the speaker remained a mute spectator to the proceedings.

According to Barman, the BJP MLAs began their protest in the well of the House when Speaker Bandyopadhyay refused to allow them to raise the issue of the burning alive of eight people, including women and children, in Rampurhat in West Bengal's Birbhum district.

"We had submitted a notice to the speaker that we wanted a discussion on how the district administration failed to save the lives of eight people who were burnt alive inside their homes. But the speaker refused to accept our request. So, we protested in the well of the House asking the speaker to accept our demand," Barman tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com over the phone."

Taking advantage of the melee, a couple of marshals from the Kolkata police, Barman alleges, misbehaved with Chandana Bauri, the BJP's Bankura MLA, and another woman MLA.

"The TMC MLAs, at the behest of senior party leaders, misbehaved with our women MLAs and roughed us up," Barman alleges.

"Our chief whip in the assembly, Manoj Tigga, was also manhandled; they even roughed up Suvendu Adhikari, Narhari Mahto and Sushil Barman. To protest against this misbehaviour of the TMC MLAs and the marshals, we staged a walkout from the House and sat on a dharna outside the assembly," Barman says.

The BJP MLAs are upset that Speaker Bandyopadhyay refused to take any action against the TMC MLAs and marshals who allegedly misbehaved with its women MLAs.

"Instead, the speaker suspended the leader of the Opposition (Suvendu Adhikari), our chief whip and three MLAs including myself," Barman says.

"How can just 25 of us indulge in fisticuffs when there were more than 100 MLAs of the TMC in the House?" he asks.

"A number of women and elderly TMC MLAs charged on us," Barman claims, "even as we were protesting against the speaker's high-handedness."