Chandigarh, March 28
The Haryana assembly today censured former Chief Minister and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala for misleading the House on loan waiver figures. It is for the first time in living memory that the House has censured one of its members.
INLD members, who vehemently protested when education minister Mange Ram Gupta presented the report of a committee constituted by Speaker Raghubir Singh Kadian on March 14, were soon on the back foot when Kadian agreed to call back deputy leader of the INLD legislature party Sushil Indora at the request of Chief Minster Bhupinder Singh Hooda, even after naming him.
Hooda also requested the Speaker to allow every INLD member present in the House to speak on the report, which had indicted their leader.
When the INLD members continued to protest against the report, Kadian had to adjourn the House twice for short durations. He even called an all-party meeting in his chamber.
When the House reassembled, the INLD members led by Indora alleged that the report had been tampered with and it had
been placed by the ruling party before the House to get political benefit. They said Chautala had not given sufficient
opportunity to place his version before the committee.
Gupta denied these allegations and said Chautala was thrice called by the committee, but he chose not to appear before it. He said since the House had mandated that the committee must submit its report during this session, today being the last day of the session he had to submit the report, which ran into 103 pages.
Participating in the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address to the House, Chautala had quoted certain figures to suggest that the Congress claim, that the waiving of farm loans amounting to Rs 60,000 crore was unprecedented, was wrong.
He said the then union minister of state for finance had said in Parliament in the early nineties that loans of Rs 16,514 crore were waived off by the government when Devi Lal was the deputy Prime Minister.
Next day these figures were challenged by parliamentary affairs minister Randeep Singh Surjewala, who accused Chautala of misleading the House. To ascertain the veracity of the two versions, the House decided to set up a committee. The committee in its report found that Chautala had misled the House.
When the INLD members raised objections about the committee, Kadian offered to give another opportunity to Chautala provided the INLD members gave a commitment that their leader would appear before the committee on a date of his choice. The INLD members avoided the issue and walked out of the House.
After several members demanded action against Chautala, Surjewala moved a motion for censuring the INLD leader, which was passed by voice vote.
Later, talking to mediapersons Hooda said now it was for Chautala to introspect and correct his actions. He and Surjewala said the report had given a lie to Chautala’s claim that his father had waived off farm loans worth crores of rupees.
