BJP legislator OP Sharma was video-taped and photographed on Monday towering over the Left leader who he flattened on the ground. (PTI photo)
Highlights
- Delhi Assembly Committee recommends sacking OP Sharma for sexist comments
- Last year, Sharma had made offensive remarks against AAP's Alka Lamba
- Earlier this week, Sharma was caught on camera attacking a Left activist
This is not a week that BJP legislator OP Sharma is likely to forget in a hurry. On Monday, Mr Sharma was photographed in a menacing attack on a Left activist , for which he was
arrested and granted bail yesterday. Today, a committee of the Delhi Assembly recommended that he be expelled for his sexist remarks against a woman legislator.
The penalty has been sought by the Delhi Assembly's Ethics Committee for Mr Sharma's offensive remarks against Alka Lamba, a member of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, which has a sprawling 67 of the 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly. The BJP has the other three.
In November, during a discussion in the legislature on the night-time arrangements at shelters for the homeless, Mr Sharma made deeply derogatory comments about how Ms Lamba spends her off-hours. At the time, he was suspended for two days from the legislature.
Sources on the Ethics Committee, which consists of 10 legislators from both BJP and AAP, said that Mr Sharma refused to apologise to Ms Lamba. If the House is asked to vote on his expulsion, given the heavy majority of Ms Lamba's party, the result is easy to predict.
The Ethics Committee also concluded that Mr Sharma is a habitual offender.
On Monday, outside a Delhi court hearing the case of Kanhaiya Kumar, the student arrested on charges of sedition,
Mr Sharma was photographed expending what he describes as his patriotism on thrashing a Left activist for allegedly shouting a pro-Pakistan slogan.
The politician claims that he didn't start it, and that if there is a bad guy in the picture, it isn't him. "If anti-nationals slogans are chanted, and if this is what's going to happen to people who try to stop things, then then I don't have anything to say," he said. Later Sharma also told the media, "if I had a gun I would have shot these anti-nationals".