Atishi misled House, misinformed media over eviction of AAP MLAs: Delhi Assembly speaker

New Delhi, Jan 6 (PTI) Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta on Tuesday charged that Leader of Opposition Atishi sought to mislead the House over the marshalling out of AAP MLAs, and referred the matter to the Privileges Committee.

On Monday, four AAP MLAs were marshalled out and suspended for the rest of the Winter Session of the assembly for interrupting Lieutenant Governor Saxena's address with a demand for clarity on air pollution.

Atishi, A former Delhi chief minister, and other AAP MLAs wore gas masks in a mark of protest against high air pollution on the first day of the Winter Session.

Gupta, in a statement issued by the Assembly Secretariat, said Atishi "misinformed" the media and made statements to "deliberately mislead" the House by claiming that the opposition members were expelled from the assembly just for wearing masks.

Earlier, Atishi alleged that the BJP government was running away from a discussion on the issue of pollution and that her party colleagues were marshalled out for raising the issue.

Sanjeev Jha, Som Dutt, Kuldeep Kumar, and Jarnail Singh were suspended from the House "solely" over deliberate disruption of proceedings, according to the statement from the secretariat.

"The action taken by Speaker had no connection whatsoever with the wearing of masks. At no point were Members expelled merely for wearing masks, and any suggestion to this effect amounts to a misrepresentation of facts," it read.

Gupta said he was "deeply hurt" as the allegation was made directly against the Chair of the House.

"The statement from the Leader of Opposition is completely irresponsible and displays her immaturity," he said, and referred the matter to the Privileges Committee.

According to the statement, Atishi attempted to initiate a discussion on 'Pollution in Delhi' despite the matter already having been formally listed on the agenda for discussion on January 7.

The speaker had already indicated that the subject would be taken up at the scheduled time, it said. PTI SSM VIT VN VN