Assam Congress leader Debabrata Saikia. File photo
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The Congress on Sunday (March 23, 2025) demanded that Assam Assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary initiate a breach of privilege against ruling BJP MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi for allegedly trying to physically attack opposition legislators and verbally abusing them in the House.
It also urged the Speaker to disallow Mr. Kurmi from attending the assembly till a committee looking into the breach of privilege against the MLA submits its report, and demanded a response from Daimary before the next sitting of the House on Monday morning.
Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia, in a letter to Mr. Daimary, maintained that Mr. Kurmi’s behaviour is unprecedented in the history of the Assam assembly.
Mr. Kurmi had got into a spat with opposition MLAs during a discussion in the House on Friday (March 21). He hurled verbal abuses at them, using expletives that were later expunged from records of proceedings.
He had also lunged at the opposition benches with the marshals preventing him from reaching further close.
A former Congressman, Kurmi, who has been representing the Mariani constituency in the Assembly since 2006, had switched over to the BJP in 2021.
BJP State president Dilip Saikia has already asked Mr. Kurmi to tender a public apology over the matter.
Debabrata Saikia said the Congress refrained from disrupting proceedings after a 10-minute walkout on Friday as it was expecting that the ruling bench would convene an all-party meeting later where all sides could place their statements, but this did not happen.
Mr. Kurmi’s behaviour has already been widely criticised by all quarters, with many questioning the very sanctity of the assembly, he claimed.
He not only lunged and abused the opposition MLAs, including Mr. Saikia, in the House, but also later threatened to adopt a more aggressive stance, the Congress leader alleged.
Mr. Saikia said the ‘repeated threats’ by Kurmi have led to a sense of fear among the opposition MLAs.
“As such, we request you to initiate breach of privilege against legislator Rupjyoti Kurmi under rule 158 of rules and procedures governing the assembly, and decide on what action needs to be taken against him,” he said in the letter to Mr. Daimary.
“Till the time the committee looking into the breach of privilege against Kurmi submits its report, we request you to not allow him to attend the assembly,” Mr. Saikia added.
Stating that the opposition has full confidence in the impartiality of the Speaker, the Congress leader demanded that Mr. Daimary convey his decision before 9.30 am on Monday when the House will meet again.
Published – March 24, 2025 06:50 am IST
