BJP stages walkout from Himachal Assembly against repealing of honorarium for those arrested during Emergency

Tribune News Service

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, April 3

Perturbed over the repealing of the Loktantra Prahari Samman Act, entitling those arrested during Emergency with an honorarium, opposition BJP staged a walkout from the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha today.

Tempers ran high as the issue of repealing the Act was being debated in the Assembly with opposition and ruling members trading charges over the politicisation of the issue. Demanding that the government should reconsider its decision to repeal the Act, enacted by the previous BJP regime in 2019-20, the BJP legislators staged a walkout.

Replying to the debate, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshvardhan Chauhan said majority of the recipients were well off people getting more than one pension and giving them honorarium amounted to misuse of government money. “The state's financial position does not permit continuation of this honorarium, resulting in a burden of Rs 3.43 crore on the state exchequer annually,” said Chauhan.

The Minister said an attempt has been made to politicise the issue though these persons had been arrested only as a preventive step to avert a law and order situation. “In 2019-2020, the then CM had announced Rs 8,000 for those arrested for less than 15 days and Rs 12,000 for those arrested for longer duration. Later, people who were imprisoned in Himachal but hailed from outside the state were added to the list of those getting honorarium,” he said.

Condemning BJP's stance, Chauhan said the state government was not bound to follow the decision of the previous regime as Congress regime headed by CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had decided to repeal the Act.

Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur said thousands of people were put behind bars during Emergency and several states had decided to provide honorarium to such people, whose number was over 80 in Himachal. He said since a scheme could have been easily de-notified, his government had decided to provide them honorarium by way of an Act, which must not be repealed.

"Please do not repeal the Act passed during our regime as democracy is important for all political parties and the society," he added. Objecting to accusation that it had been done to benefit the RSS people, Thakur said Jai Prakash Narain, Mulayam Singh Yadav and George Fernandez who were imprisoned during Emergency were not from RSS.

Participating in the debate, PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh said Indira Gandhi had got a thumping mandate in 1972 and there was a state of desperation on the part of some political parties as they felt it would be impossible to defeat Indira Gandhi. “Do not compare them to freedom fighters as this would be very unfair as they have not made any contribution in the independence of the country,” the Minister added.

Participating in the debate, Una legislator Satpal Satti said the attitude of Congress towards the judiciary was just the same as it was in 1975. "Reconsider the move to repeal this Act as we all must respect democracy," said Satti. He added that people from various political ideologies had participated in the freedom struggle and facts must not be distorted.

Participating in the debate, Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi said Emergency was imposed as attempts were being made to destabilise a democratically elected government. "It was a wrong precedent started by you to honour those who tried to murder democracy. Will RSS which has tried to divide the people along communal lines sermonise us about democracy," said Negi.

Naina Devi MLA Randhir Sharma said RSS was a cultural organization and it was wrong to repeal the Act, which had honoured those who were arrested during Emergency.

Jwalamukhi legislator Sanjay Rattan said they had been arrested to prevent them from destabilising an elected government. Sulah MLA Vipin Parmar said the emergency was a black chapter in the history of India where the rights of the people had been violated.

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