Bhopal, Mar 7 (Agency) In the wake of Madhya Pradesh’s Congress legislator and erstwhile state minister Jitu Patwari’s announcing – via social media – his boycott of the customary gubernatorial address marking commencement of the Assembly’s Budget Session on Monday, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in the House that both the Treasury benches and the opposition must respect parliamentary traditions.
Leader of the Opposition and erstwhile chief minister Kamal Nath also expressed disagreement with his own party member’s action. “I do not concur with any step that affects the dignity of the House,” he emphasised. Mr Chouhan expressed “heartfelt gratitude” towards Mr Kamal Nath for voicing his protest against a wrong practice.
During a later interaction with the press on the Assembly premises, the Chief Minister said that Mr Patwari’s move smacked of an attempt to garner publicity. “The bureaucracy is unbridled, the peasant exploited, cheap alcohol is being supplied to every dwelling, the maximum number of bovines are being slaughtered in this state and the public is reeling under debt. It is necessary to awaken the BJP dispensation,” Mr Patwari wrote.