Vexed Delhi CM Rekha Gupta says get rid of phansi-ghar signage
LoP Atishi and other AAP MLAs were marshalled out of the Assembly following a heated exchange with BJP members over the authenticity of a so-called British-era 'phansi-ghar' (execution room) on the House premises.
Speaker Vijender Gupta said the structure, renovated and inaugurated in 2022 by then CM Arvind Kejriwal, was a 'tiffin room' and not a site of colonial executions.
Minister Kapil Mishra accused the AAP government of 'tampering with history' by projecting a false narrative. 'They spent crores turning a tiffin room into a fake execution site,' he said.
AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha, however, defended the room's historical significance, arguing that many such execution sites were never officially recorded. 'Historians have differing views on such places. In the 1912 map of this building, that is the only double-storey structure consistent with a hanging chamber,' he said.
As the altercation between the treasury and opposition benches escalated, the Speaker ordered Atishi and other AAP MLAs to be removed from the House. The Speaker said 'phansi-ghar' was a tiffin room and there was a misconception that it was used to hang freedom fighters during British rule.
The CM urged the Speaker to immediately remove the misleading signage referencing the 'phansi-ghar' from the Assembly premises emphasising that this rectification is especially critical ahead of the All India Speakers' Conference scheduled for August 24–25.
She alleged that Kejriwal had arbitrarily declared a portion of the Assembly premises as a gallows site without any documentary evidence or historical authenticity in an attempt to gain public sympathy.
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