The ongoing tussle between the ruling Congress and Opposition political parties in the Assam Assembly took an ugly turn on Friday when Congress ministers, bogged down by charges of corruption, got engaged into bitter exchanges and threatened a BJP MLA for playing “cymbal” as mark of protest during Question Hour of the Assam Assembly on Friday. However, Congress ministers had a bitter argument with legislators of the Opposition soon the Speaker was compelled to adjourn the House because of uproarious scene.
Later on, BJP legislator Prasanta Phukan was expelled from the House for the remaining two days of the Assam Assembly session by Speaker Tanka Bahdur Roy, who readily agreed to the plea of the Congress ministers for the expulsion of the BJP legislators.
Meanwhile, the Opposition did not allow the Assam Assembly to function on the fourth consecutive day, seeking dismissal of Congress ministers who are alleged to have been involved in the multi-crore NC Hills scam.
The Opposition is also asking for more mandates to the CBI to investigate the role of the Congress ministers who allegedly violated the Cabinet decisions while sanctioning the fund to the NC Hills Council.
The problem continued as Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi was non-committal to the demand of the Opposition. “We have already forwarded nine cases to the CBI for investigation. How can I simply drop a minister or some ministers without any charge? No ministers in my Cabinet have so far been interrogated or named by any investigating agency,” said chief minister Tarun Gogoi while refusing to respond to the pointed question of Opposition leaders who are pressing for more mandates to the CBI to probe the role of ministers in NC Hills scam.