Bengal BJP chief whip suspended from Assembly for disrupting speech about attacks on migrant workers

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s chief whip in the West Bengal Assembly Sankar Ghosh was suspended from the House on Thursday for disrupting proceedings during a three-day special session convened to discuss attacks on Bengali-speaking migrant workers in several other states, PTI reported.

During a discussion on a resolution on such attacks, BJP MLAs, led by Ghosh, reportedly disrupted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s speech. They demanded to know why Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari had been suspended, PTI reported.

Adhikari was suspended on Tuesday by Speaker Biman Banerjee for shouting slogans to object to a minister’s remark about the Army during a House debate.

On Thursday, the speaker suspended five BJP MLAs – Sankar Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Mihir Goswami, Ashok Dinda and Bamkin Ghosh – for creating a ruckus in the House. When the BJP’s chief whip refused to leave, security personnel were called in, and he was dragged out of the chamber, PTI reported.

Since the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, the police in several states ruled by the BJP have been detaining Bengali-speaking persons – mostly Muslims – and asking them to prove that they are Indian citizens.

Several persons have been forced into Bangladesh after they allegedly could not prove their Indian citizenship. In some cases, persons who were mistakenly sent...

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