Ruckus over Maha violence disrupts House

NEW DELHI: The caste violence in Maharashtra hit parliamentary proceedings on Wednesday, as the Congress blamed the BJP and RSS for the unrest, which in turn accused the Opposition party of trying to politicise the turmoil.

The din drowned the debate on a constitutional amendment bill in the Lok Sabha, which had to be adjourned due to disruptions.

The Congress demanded PM Narendra Modi’s statement on the violence that has left a person dead, damaged public property and triggered protests by Dalits, who called a shutdown in the state on Wednesday.

“He does not take action... he keeps mum,” party leader Mallikarjun Kharge said, accusing Modi of keeping silent on atrocities against Dalits, leading to protests by BJP members.

Some of Kharge’s remarks were expunged by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar hit back. “The Congress wants to politicise the issue. The party suffered electoral drubbing in so many states in the recent past and that is why they want to milk political mileage over the issue,” he said.

The Rajya Sabha, too, saw three adjournments, with Opposition parties such as the Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party seeking a discussion.

Mahajan adjourned the Lok Sabha for 15 minutes shortly after she announced a sudden end to the zero hour over disruptions by Congress members.

When the House met again, it resumed the discussion on the Constitution (one hundred and twenty-third amendment) bill, 2017 for granting constitutional status to the national commission on backward classes.

Social justice and empowerment minister Thawarchand Gehlot tabled the bill that seeks to reject the amendment passed by Rajya Sabha in the last session.

The discussion remained inconclusive as the House was adjourned for the day after an exchange between minister Giriraj Singh and Trinamool Congress member Kalyan Banerjee.

“… the violence was part of a RSS and BJP conspiracy. We had wanted an impartial inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge,” Kharge later told reporters. “The PM speaks on Dalits in the elec- tions and outside the Parliament but never in the House.”

TMC’S Saugata Roy, too, said the Maharshtra government had failed in anticipate the violence.

On January 1, violence broke out in Koregaon Bhima, 40km from Pune, where hundreds of thousands of people, most of them Dalits, had gathered to mark the 200th anniversary a war between the British and Peshwa Bajirao II.

Many Dalit leaders believe the war was won by the British with the help of Dalit soldiers.

Some groups waving saffron flags pelted stones at the gathering and it degenerated into a riot.