The Tripura Assembly proceedings on Wednesday- on the first day of the current session- was marred following bedlam in the over the recent controversial social media posts of Welfare of Scheduled Caste and Animal Resource Development Departments Minister Sudhangshu Das relating to Hindu temple attack and idol defacing. At a point of time the opposition Congress trooped to the well and then staged a walkout from the assembly.
It was during the reference period, both the opposition Congress and the CPM MLAs raised the issue and sought his apology.
Congress MLA Birajit Sinha raised the issue and was supported by his party colleagues as well as CPM MLA and Leader of Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury.
Terming the Minister’s social media posts as ‘hate speech’, former Minister and Congress Sudip Roy Barman criticised him and said: “A minister took an oath of office and secrecy as per the Constitutional mandate and he cannot make such a post in a public platform.”
Assembly Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen, however, rejected the opposition MLAs’ demand to seek an apology from Minister Sudhangshu Das.
During a heated argument over the issue Parliamentary Affairs and Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sushanta Chowdhury and other BJP MLAs defended Minister Sudhangshu Das.
Das accused the Congress of being “anti-Hindu party”.
In the wake of defacing of Kali idol by some miscreants at Koitorabari in Ranirbazar in the city outskirt in his September 1 Facebook post, which the minister subsequently removed, said: “In my view, the Hindus have no moral right to offer puja to Hindu gods and goddesses because those people who can’t protect their temples and gods, do not deserve to organise prayers or offer puja.”
In the assembly Das, however, due to the noisy scenes, however, could not complete his clarification in favour of his Facebook post.
Ruling BJP members during the arguments, referred to the series of incidents during the Partition of the country and since before the Independence of India, ‘Great Bengal Killing’, Noakhali Riots, Kashmiri pandits’ exodus from Jammu and Kashmir and attacks on minorities in Bangladesh and exodus of people from the then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh during and after 1971.
