Anti-Vedanta youths sneak into Assembly

Anti-Vedanta youths sneak into Assembly

By InsightOrissa Bureau, Bhubaneswar

Tuesday August 09, 2005

Legislators in Orissa Assembly were for a surprise on Tuesday when leaflets rained from unexpected skies and voices from uncalled for and un-Parliamentary sources interfered the House proceeding.

Legislators in Orissa Assembly were for a surprise on Tuesday when leaflets rained from unexpected skies and voices from uncalled for and un-Parliamentary sources interfered the House proceeding. Five youths, identifying themselves as Kalahandi Nagarika Sachetana Mancha, sneaked into the visitors’ gallery of the Assembly and started raising slogans against Vedanta Alumina project in the midst of a discussion on the State’s law and order situation.

These youths did not limit themselves to sloganeering; they even threw leaflets containing anti-Vedanta statements. The House appeared shocked over this unexpected breach of Assembly sanctity even as security forces rushed in to drag these youths out of the Assembly premises. It took quite a few minutes for the Assembly to regain its composure. The youth were later let go.

But, Speaker Maheswar Mohanty took the matter seriously and suspended the discretion of sanctioning visitors’ pass of the three MLAs including CPI’s Narayan Reddy pending inquiry.

This rare incident has raised questions over the efficacy of intelligence wing of the State Police, as it failed to gather information that activists of anti-Vedanta campaign were unto affect the House sanctity.