SHIMLA: The Monsoon Session of the 14th Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly got off to a chaotic start on Friday, August 21, with proceedings inside the House lasting just 12 minutes before being adjourned until 11 AM on Saturday, August 22.
The 12th session of the Assembly, scheduled to run until September 3 across 10 sittings, began at 11 AM. As per parliamentary procedure, the first day’s proceedings were slated to begin with obituary references for former legislators Bijender Singh and Ram Chand Bhatia, followed by regular business. Prior to the commencement of the House, Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania had appealed to all political parties for cooperation to ensure a productive and meaningful session.
However, the session witnessed an immediate uproar as soon as proceedings began. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators raised slogans regarding the issue of the national anthem inside the chamber. In response, treasury bench MLAs and Cabinet Ministers rose from their seats and engaged in counter-sloganeering. With both sides raising intense slogans, Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania adjourned the proceedings until Saturday morning.
The uproar inside the chamber was preceded by demonstrations outside. Prior to the start of the House, opposition MLAs staged a protest on the Assembly premises targeting the government over unfulfilled promises regarding youth employment. The opposition filed a adjournment motion notice under Rule 67, demanding an immediate discussion on the state’s unemployment situation.
Attacking the government, BJP MLA Randhir Sharma accused Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s administration of failing the youth. Sharma stated that the Congress came to power on the promise of providing 5,00,000 jobs in Himachal Pradesh, but only a few thousand jobs have been provided so far. Calling it a betrayal of unemployed youth, Sharma demanded that all other legislative business be suspended to prioritize a discussion on employment.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu strongly refuted the charges, describing the protest as a political stunt born out of internal factionalism within the opposition. While acknowledging that staging protests is an opposition right, the Chief Minister claimed BJP MLAs were protesting merely to remain relevant in the eyes of their central leadership. Sukhu further alleged that a faction of BJP legislators is actively seeking to remove the current Leader of the Opposition from his post.
The legislative secretariat has received a total of 1,036 questions from legislators to be addressed across the 10 scheduled sittings of the Monsoon Session.
