Din in Lok Sabha over RLP MP’s controversial remark on Gandhis

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 5

“Very sad” over happenings in the Lok Sabha, Speaker Om Birla skipped proceedings of the House again on Thursday which eventually ended with suspension of seven Congress MPs for their “unruly behaviour and disrespect to the Chair”. The Lok Sabha has been witnessing vociferous protests over Delhi riots by the Opposition while demanding Home Minister Amit Shah’s resignation.

On Thursday, the House saw a few moments of peace when Health Minister Harsh Vardhan was presenting a statement on India’s preparedness to battle the novel coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19). However, while Opposition members were expressing views on the important issue after Vardhan’s statement, the House had to be adjourned when the BJP ally Rashtriya Loktantrik Party’s MP Hanuman Beniwal made a controversial remark related to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi.

Beniwal’s words, which were met with vociferous objections from Congress MPs, were expunged by BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal who was presiding over the proceedings of the House in absence of Birla.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Beniwal had “lost his mental balance but he was not the architect of this conspiracy.” He said the Prime Minister had launched a ‘Goli Maro, Gali Do Abhiyan’ against the entire Opposition and against this country per se.

Congress members stormed the Well of the House. Opposition members, including those from the Congress, the DMK, the Left and the TMC, have been forcing repeated adjournments in the Lok Sabha since Monday. The impasse in the second half of the 2020 Budget Session is also the longest in the 17th Lok Sabha.

Birla took the unprecedented step to not conduct House proceedings after his appeals for peace failed to yield results on Tuesday. Though he was very much present in his office on Wednesday, he did not come to the House to conduct the proceedings on Wednesday and likewise today.

In his absence, Biju Janata Dal leader Bhartruhari Mahtab and BJP MPs Rajendra Agarwal, Rama Devi and Meenakshi Lekhi conducted the proceedings.