Resolution to
name Jharsuguda airport after
freedom fighter
Veer Surendra Sai
also passed
Bhubaneswar: The State Assembly Tuesday passed a resolution, urging the Centre to include the uniquely Indian ideal of Ahimsa (non-violence), in the Preamble of India’s Constitution. This was followed by a walkout by the Opposition.
On behalf of the Chief Minister, parliamentary affairs minister Bikram Keshari Arukha moved the proposal in the Assembly. Though the Opposition members and ruling party’s MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain welcomed the move, they demanded a rectification in the draft resolution before passing it in the house. However, Speaker PK Amat passed the resolution without correction.
Protesting the manner in which the house passed the resolution, Opposition Congress and the BJP staged a walkout and refused to return despite several requests.
“We are boycotting the house to protest the manner in which the resolution was passed without paying scant respect to Opposition,” Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra said before leaving the house.
Speaker PK Amat directed government chief whip Amar Prasad Satpathy, industries minister Anant Das and finance minister Sashi Bhusan Behera to invite Opposition members to the house and then adjourned it for 15 minutes, and again by another 15 minutes.
As the Opposition members did not return, Speaker moved to the next business.
The Opposition members objected to the draft resolution titled: “This Assembly resolves to recommend the state government to move the Central government to include the ‘Uniquely’ Indian ideal of Ahimsa, of non-violence in the Preamble of India’s Constitution.”
The LoP said he suggested changes in the wordings of the resolution and bring it in Odia which will be understandable to all people in the state. “I fail to understand what the resolution wordings mean. Let it be modified,” he stated.
Stating that the house should not be in a hurry to pass the resolution as it is not so urgent, the Congress leader said, “We can discuss and deliberate the implications of the resolution before passing it. Therefore, I request the government not to pass it in a haste.”
Senior BJD member Ranendra Pratap Swain also said he too fails to understand the wordings. Swain said the resolution also does not suggest where to insert the word “Ahimsa” in the Preamble of the Constitution. BJP member Pradip Purohit also welcomed the resolution, but asked the government to think over the wordings before it gets the nod of the house.
Arukh accepted the suggestions made by the members and said, “Yes, we have decided to delete ‘comma and of’ after the word Ahimsa and put the word non-violence within bracket.”
In May, speaking at the first preparatory meeting of the celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, held under the chairmanship of President Ram Nath Kovind, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had recommended inclusion of the word ‘Ahimsa’ in the Preamble of Constitution.
Similarly, the house also passed a resolution to name the state’s second airport at Jharsuguda after freedom fighter Veer Surendra Sai. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the airport September 22 during his one-day visit to the state.
