Students jump into Assembly hall

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI, MARCH 28. Five students, complaining against the de- recognition of their colleges offering diploma level courses in education, today jumped into the Legislative Assembly from the visitors' gallery, one of them landing on an NCP MLA, Mr. Abhyasinhraje Bhonsle, triggering a spat between them and some legislators, including at least one minister, and an adjournment. They were all, according to a Government motion, to be sentenced till the session ends in another five weeks. When one of the five plunged from a height on Mr. Bhonsle, a former Congress(I) Minister, he just crumbled under the weight but managed to throw him down, in the process reportedly injuring him. A shocked - most of them later said they did not even know what happened - set of legislators just moved from their seats and pounced on the students. Mr. Anandrao Deokate, a minister accused by Opposition of ``beating up the students,'' says he thought ``some extremist has landed here.''

From the press gallery, the details of the developing drama was not entirely clearly visible, and accounts given later by everyone varied in substance, with the key Treasury Bench spokesman, Mr. Rohidas Patil, saying ``I could see very little. My attention was on the business in the House and my back was to the incident.'' Mr. Deokate told newsmen, rebuffing Opposition charges that ``they were beaten up'', by insisting that ``I went there and just pushed the person away since he was coming towards me.''

Walkout

Mr. Gopinath Munde, BJP's Leader (and ex-Deputy CM) insisted that ``they were beaten up since the boys were dalits.'' But Mr. Narayan Rane, Shiv Sena's Leader of Opposition, declined to push the idea any further. His preoccupation was with the manner in which he was ``insulted'' by the Government when he rose to speak on the budget. The budget, it may be recalled, was read amid a continuous chant of slogans by the entire Opposition which led to suspension of nine BJP MLAs, including its whip, Mr. Raj Purhoit.To Mr. Rane, the absence of the Finance Minister, Mr. Jayant Patil, and Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, leaving the task of taking notes to Mr. Dilip Valse-Patil, a Cabinet Minister, ``was unprecedented'' lack of courtesy to the Leader of Opposition. He harped on this show of disrespect ``when we wanted to restore the functioning of the House.'' He took umbrage and then walked out. Mr. Deshmukh then walked in, almost as if on cue.

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