Himachal Assembly adjourned amid second day of protests over national anthem, Vande Mataram

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BJP protests outside Speaker’s chamber, seeks video footage over anthem row as sloganeering disrupts proceedings for second consecutive day.

Shimla , August 22

The second day of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly’s Monsoon Session was also marred by disruptions on Saturday, with the deadlock over alleged disrespect to the national anthem and national song Vande Mataram continuing for the second consecutive day. Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania adjourned the House till 2 pm on Monday.

The first two days of the session have seen limited legislative business, with the House functioning for only around two hours and 15 minutes. The controversy that began on Friday over the national anthem and Vande Mataram continued to dominate proceedings on Saturday.

After the House was adjourned, BJP MLAs staged a protest outside Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania’s chamber, alleging that the ruling party was avoiding discussion and demanding that the Assembly proceedings be allowed to continue.

Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur accused the government of running away from discussion and said the Opposition wanted the House to function. He said the BJP legislature party had approached the Speaker to raise its concerns.

Thakur demanded that if the government was alleging disrespect to the national anthem on the first day of the session, the relevant video footage should be made public. He alleged that the government was attempting to implement the Congress Working Committee’s agenda in the Himachal Assembly.

The Leader of Opposition said BJP MLAs had written to the Assembly Secretariat seeking the video clip related to the alleged incident. He claimed that no disrespect to the national anthem had taken place and accused Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of making false allegations. Thakur also alleged that the Chief Minister had left the House because the government did not want proceedings to continue.

Meanwhile, Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania said any decision on the House’s proceedings would be taken inside the Assembly, not outside it. He said he was not obliged to respond to allegations made by the Opposition.

Pathania said that following Friday’s disruption over the national song issue, members had been informed about the Assembly’s established tradition of singing the national anthem at the beginning of the session and the national song at its conclusion.

Despite this, the deadlock between the ruling and Opposition benches continued on Saturday. After obituary references, the Question Hour began, and two questions were answered. The Leader of Opposition was then given an opportunity to make a statement, following which Chief Minister Sukhu began his reply.

However, Opposition members continued raising slogans and did not listen to the Chief Minister’s response. With sloganeering from both sides preventing order in the House, proceedings could not continue.

The Speaker said the issue would not be resolved in his chamber and that a solution would have to be found inside the House in the presence of members from both the ruling and Opposition sides.