Ruckus in LS, RS on Hegde snipe
Following uprorious scenes, Congress, DMK, NCP and Trinamul walk out from Lok Sabha
New Delhi: The controversial remarks made by BJP MP Anant Kumar Hegde on Mahatma Gandhi rocked Lok Sabha on Tuesday, with Congress members shouting slogans and walking out of the House after accusing the ruling party of doing “Godse politics”. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said they were expecting a response from parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi on the controversial remarks but they are “helping” people who hate Mahatma Gandhi.
The Lok Sabha erupted on Tuesday over controversial remarks on Mahatma Gandhi made by BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde with Congress members disrupting proceedings in the first half of the day, resulting in a walk-out by the Opposition.
As soon as the House convened in the morning, Congress MPs Hibi Eden, Gaurav Gogoi, K. Suresh and Abdul Khaleque gave adjournment motions in the House and demanded an immediate discussion. Amid ruckus, Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House till noon.
When the House reassembled at noon, Congress members trooped into the well shouting slogans with placards of “BJP Party Godse Party” and “Mahatma Gandhi amar rahein.” At this the Speaker said: “People have elected us to debate and discuss. Please let the House run.” He also rejected all the adjournment motions.
However, the protests continued and Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that Hegde has “insulted” Mahatma Gandhi, who was respected by people across the globe. He also said that they were expecting a response from Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi on the controversial remarks but they (the ruling party) are “helping”people who hate Mahatma Gandhi.
“I have no expectations from people who are doing Godse politics,” the West Bengal MP added. To this Joshi said BJP members are real “bhakts” and followers of Mahatma Gandhi while the Congress is a follower of “nakli (fake) Gandhi like Rahul and Sonia Gandhi.” Following this ruckus, all Opposition, including Congress, DMK, NCP and later Trinamul Congress walked out from the House.
Hegde had recently said in Bengaluru that freedom fighters who did not sacrifice anything made the country believe that it attained Independence through ‘Upavas Satyagraha’, Gandhi’s preferred mode of agitation, and became mahapurush (great person). The former MP had said, “There were two types of freedom fighters, one which believed in shastr (arms) and another in shastra (intellectual motivators).”