The Odisha Assembly Speaker, Surama Padhy, suspended 12 Congress MLAs for seven days for indiscipline in the House. The suspension followed a motion moved by the government Chief Whip, Saroj Pradhan. The suspended MLAs include the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, Rama Chandra Kadam, and other prominent figures. The Congress members protested the decision, playing gongs and demonstrating in the assembly. The opposition BJD condemned the move, calling it motivated to suppress the voice of opposition. The Congress party demanded the withdrawal of the suspension order and criticized the government's actions. The House was adjourned multiple times amid the pandemonium.
The two processes are far more similar than you can imagine, says Dasarathi GV.
It will be bad for the farmer and the consumer. It will be bad for the poor -- urban and rural. It will put a lot of people in the retail trade out of jobs. It will increase fuel use, says G V Dasarathi who is in charge of buying groceries in his family.
'Democracy must be nurtured, or else it gets corrupted. Voting is just one part of your duty as a citizen of this democracy. But another duty that most of us overlook is participation,' says G V Dasarathi.
'I know we will keep meeting, Appu, on gym floors that I visit, every time I listen to a song of yours and in that grin that I will always carry in my memory.'
Your vote now is going to decide whether India fixes itself and becomes a vibrant democracy, or a failed State like the ones in our neighbourhood, says Dasarathi G V.
'It is folly to think that religious-identity-based politics and a flourishing economy can co-exist in a diverse society.' 'We can fight and kill each other, or fight together and kill poverty. We cannot do both,' says Dasarathi G V.
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