Gangajal Politics: BJD MLAs purify Odisha Assembly premises with holy water over police entry

Bhubaneswar: A day after condemning the suspension of Congress MLAs and their eviction from the well of the House by engaging police, the BJD members on Thursday sprinkled ‘Gangajal’ to purify the Assembly premises in Odisha capital.

They raised slogans while sprinkling ‘Gangajal’ from earthen pots using mango leaves in every nook and corner of the House and claimed that the sanctity of hallowed precincts was desecrated due to unwarranted police entry. “We sprinkled ‘Ganga Jal’ to purify the Assembly. It has been polluted as the Speaker allowed the police to enter the Well of the House,” BJD MLA and former minister Arun Kumar Sahoo said.

This came even as the Odisha unit of Congress took out a protest rally in Bhubaneswar to gherao the Odisha Assembly over the issue of safety of women in the state. The party has been demanding the formation of a house committee to investigate crimes against women during the last eight months of the BJP government in the state. The disruption of the House by Congress MLAs by beating gongs over the issue had led to their weeklong suspension. High drama followed on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning with 12 Congress members being evicted from the House following a scuffle with the security staff.

On Wednesday, deputy leader of BJD legislature party Prasanna Acharya said that this was for the first time in the history of Odisha Assembly that police entered the House to deal with the Opposition. He described the incident as rare and unprecedented.

BJD’s Rajya Sabha MP Sasmit Patra also accused the police of having become the handmaiden of the government.

In 2021, BJP MLAs had sprinkled Gangajal and cow-dung water outside Odisha Assembly protesting against the entry of the then minister of state (home) Dibya Shankar Mishra into the House over alleged role in the murder of Kalahandi school teacher Mamita Meher.