Who was loud and who had the right to be louder — the ruling party or the Opposition? This was one of the many discussions in the Maharashtra legislative Assembly on Monday. There was a short but serious verbal duel between deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and Opposition leader Eknath Khadse on the issue.
In the course of a discussion, Mr Pawar objected to Mr Khadse speaking rather loudly. To this, Mr Khadse promptly shot back, saying that his voice has always been loud — even before Mr Pawar had come into the House.
Mr Pawar, who is also the state power minister, was replying to a starred question on the closing down of a sub-station at Nashik seven months ago due to severe shortage of manpower.
The minister, in the course of his answer, said that the contract to set up a 220 KV power sub-station had been given to M/s ECI Shanghai in August 2009, but the actual work, costing `2,200 crore, began in March 2010.
Admitting that there had been a delay in the completion of the work to set up the sub-station, Mr Pawar said the financial condition of the company was not sound enough. He also said that a notice would be served to the company and that they would be asked to complete the work by December 31, 2012.
Mr Khadse, objecting to the reply, asked why no action had been taken against the firm for delaying the work for seven months. “Has any penalty been imposed on the company?” asked Mr Khadse in a booming voice.
This was when Mr Pawar objected to Mr Khadse’s tone and tenor and asked why he was speaking so loudly. The reaction by the DCM infuriated the opposition and many of the BJP MLAs stood up demanding that Mr Pawar take back his words.
Mr Khadse too immediately said that the government should not try to suppress the Opposition’s voice.
“My voice is loud and it has been so even before you came into this house,” he told Mr Pawar.
To this Mr Pawar said, “We (the ruling party) can speak louder and people of this state only hear our voice.”
Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil tried to bring down the flying tempers, saying that it would be better if members spoke calmly instead of in agitated voices. “Members should not try to cast aspersions on other members,” he said.