"Injustice To Opposition": Atishi Writes To Speaker On AAP MLAs' Suspension

Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Delhi Assembly Atishi on Friday wrote to speaker Vijender Gupta and called the suspension of 21 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs "injustice to opposition" and a "severe blow to democratic values".

"I am writing this letter with great pain and sorrow. The biggest strength of democracy is its fairness and equality. But whatever happened in the Delhi Assembly in the past few days is not only injustice to the opposition MLAs, but also a severe blow to democratic values. Our Constitution gives us the right to raise our voice in a democratic way. But if the voice of the opposition is suppressed, if the MLAs are prevented from raising the questions of the public inside and outside the House, then how will democracy survive?" the AAP leader said in the letter.

21 out of the 22 AAP legislators, including Atishi, were suspended from the Delhi Assembly for three days on Tuesday after they protested against the alleged removal of B R Ambedkar's portrait from the newly appointed Chief Minister's office. The Speaker ordered the suspension for disrupting Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena's inaugural address to the newly constituted House.

Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan was the only AAP legislator spared from the suspension as he was not present in the House during the protest. The motion for suspension was moved by Minister Parvesh Verma.

"On Tuesday, 25 February 2025, during the address of the Honorable Lieutenant Governor, the MLAs of the ruling party raised slogans of 'Modi-Modi', while the opposition MLAs raised slogans of 'Jai Bhim' respecting the views of Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar ji. It is very unfortunate that no action was taken against any MLA of the ruling party, but 21 MLAs of the opposition were suspended from the House for 3 days for raising the slogan 'Jai Bhim'," Atishi wrote in the letter.

Adding that the "injustice" did not stop, the AAP leader claimed that when the suspended MLAs were going to protest peacefully in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statute in the Delhi assembly premises in a "democratic" way, they were stopped and prevented from entering the assembly grounds.

"This is an insult not only to the MLAs but also to the mandate given by the people," she said.

दिल्ली विधान सभा अध्यक्ष विजेंद्र गुप्ता जी को मेरा पत्र… pic.twitter.com/loF2MbvigY

— Atishi (@AtishiAAP) February 28, 2025

"Hon'ble Speaker, you have also been the leader of the opposition for years. Even when you were suspended from the House for some reason, you were not stopped from going to the assembly premises and registering protest in front of the Gandhi statue. Because this is our democratic right. But today, the rights of the MLAs of the opposition are being violated. We have also seen this tradition in the Parliament of the country that when an MP is suspended from the House, he is allowed to go to the Parliament premises and protest in front of the Gandhi statue," the Leader of Opposition added.

After a BJP vs AAP face-off in the assembly, the House session was extended by two days till March 1.