Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij on Friday triggered a storm in the Assembly when he termed the Congress legislators a progeny of the British saying the party was founded by a Briton. The Congress leaders protested vociferously and later staged a walk-out and marched up to the Governor’s House where they presented a memorandum to Kaptan Singh Solanki demanding that the BJP leaders be refrained from making such remarks in the House.
In a show of solidarity on the issue, all the Congress legislators including former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Congress Legislative Party leader Kiran Chaudhary, marched to the Governor’s House and staged a protest there as well against the utterances of the BJP leaders. Mr. Hooda demanded that the BJP apologise and threatened that the Congress would not let the House function till it did so.
He said BJP was working on the RSS agenda of defaming Congress leaders and the party would take the protest right up to the President of India.
Mr. Vij’s remarks had come in the wake of allegations levelled by some Congress legislators against the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh in the House. This was vehemently opposed by the BJP leaders.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also issued a statement saying the common man looks up to the House and its members to bring up and debate issues of their development and matter of their interest rather than squabble on petty issues about the relative stature of the leaders of their respective parties. “Sometimes ordinary words uttered in a sarcastic manner could also hurt the person at the receiving end,” and this he said should be avoided.
Mr. Khattar said there have been references to RSS in offensive terms in the past too but the courts have cleared its name. “If any member refers to the RSS in this manner it hurts,” said Mr. Khattar adding that the ideology of RSS has made him the person he is today.
The Chief Minister also appealed to Speaker Kanwar Pal to expunge all remarks which had hurt the sentiments of the members. Subsequently, the remarks pertaining to both RSS and Congress leaders were expunged.
Only a day earlier, Mr. Vij, who also holds the Sports and Youth Affairs portfolio, had taken another swipe at the Congress leadership in the State when he had declared that the State Government is considering changing the name of all Rajiv Gandhi Khel Parisars in the State.
He had noted that Congress had never tried to rise above family politics and therefore the name of all 226 Rajiv Gandhi Khel Parisars would be changed. He had also appealed to the MLAs present in the House to suggest an alternative name.
Further, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal had assured the House that he would take appropriate actions within the law and rules as suggested by Mr. Vij and if it involved any legal complications then it would be re-considered.
Termed the Congress legislators a progeny of the British saying it was founded by a Briton
Congress legislators marched to the Governor’s House and staged a protest there as well
