Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta on Friday explained to Leader of the Opposition Atishi the reasons behind his decision to suspend AAP MLAs from the legislature. He stressed that he has responded to Atishi’s letter, received on Friday, shared his letter with the media, as was done by Atishi. Atishi objected to the fact that no action was taken against the ruling party MLAs when they raised slogans of ‘Modi-Modi’, while 21 opposition MLAs were suspended for solely raising ‘Jai Bhim’ slogans. The Speaker said the AAP legislators adopted unruly behaviour in the House on February 24 but he did not take any disciplinary action against them as it was the first day of the new Assembly. The disruption of the address of Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena to the House was against parliamentary conventions and a violation of code of conduct regulations, he said, justifying his decision. He said when a member is suspended, he or she is subjected to these restrictions, which is an established parliamentary procedure. He expressed pain over the loss of House business hours due to the disruption by the Opposition legislators.
