The sole Muslim MLA in the Gujarat Assembly on Monday sought the speaker’s protection from allegedly insulting references to him by Bharatiya Janata Party legislators, The Indian Express reported.

In response, Speaker Shankar Chaudhary urged all MLAs not to make personal references. This came after the Muslim legislator, the Congress’ Imran Khedawala, objected to BJP MLAs describing him as being “from a specific community”.

During the Question Hour on Monday, Khedawala sought to know when work would begin on a proposed bridge between Vishala Circle and Sarkhej Crossroads in Ahmedabad, and by when the construction would be completed. The road passes through the Muslim-dominated areas of Juhapura and Sarkhej in Ahmedabad.

In response, Minister of State Jagdish Vishwakarma said that starting the construction and completing it depended on several factors, including the number of encroachments on the route, according to The Indian Express.

“On that single road, there are more than 700 non-veg lorries, shops, kiosks; more than 1,200 rickshaws lie on that road, around 11 garages of a particular community are there and all of them are illegal,” Vishwakarma said. “Around six religious encroachments of a particular community are there.”

The BJP MLA was further quoted by The Indian Express as saying: “When only a particular community does encroachments in the entire state, then, honourable Imranbhai, it is your duty that your community does not do wrongful encroachment.”

Vishwakarma subsequently said that Khedawala’s allegedly “unauthorised” office in Ahmedabad’s Jamalpur area had recently been bulldozed.

The Congress MLA, however, denied that his office was illegal. Khedawala told the speaker that BJP legislators were repeatedly describing him in allegedly insulting terms as being from a “particular community”.

He said: “Here, I am a Muslim MLA among the 182 MLAs. So, I seek your protection. I raise issues of society and of Gujarat within the limits of the Constitution. So, the kind of sentences being used in the Assembly, it should not be done now onwards.”

Speaker Shankar Chaudhary then asked all ministers and MLAs to be respectful of each other, The Indian Express reported.