Self-appointed Rajya Sabha LOP
During the ruckus over conversions in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday Deputy Leader of the Congress party, Anand Sharma, raised his voice above the din and shouted "you don’t want to listen to the Leader of Opposition’’. He was referring to himself. This was in the absence of LOP Ghulam Nabi Azad who is busy campaigning for his party in Jammu and Kashmir. In the heat of the moment Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien also asked the House to listen to the "Leader of Opposition’’ prompting journalists in the press gallery to check with one another if indeed they had missed out on the news of Mr. Sharma becoming LOP. "Self-appointed’’ was the wry response of a senior newsman.
I Love You
Actor-turned politician Manoj Tiwari got so carried away during a discussion in LS on Bill introduced by Urban Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu that he recited a poem beginning “Venkiahji I love you’’. In his reply, the Minister caught on to the “I love you’’ bit and said he had no problem with that expression. “My wife is not going to misunderstand you because many people love me and write love letters to me since my younger days. She is here in Delhi. I will tell her definitely that there is one more person who has joined….,’’ he said as the House burst into laughter.
Nirbhaya remembered
Two years after the horrific Nirbhaya rape case that shocked the nation three Lok Sabha MPs Kiron Kher (BJP), Sushmita Dev (Congress) and Meenakshi Lekhi (BJP) all separately raised it in the House on Tuesday. Ms. Kher, after recalling the incident, made a plea for a law in the country that would allow citizens to take injured persons to a hospital without facing harassment.
Ms. Dev, a trained barrister, pointed out that the Fast Track Court put into place to adjudicate on crimes against women has been defeated by the fact that the appeal in the Nirbhaya case lies in the Supreme Court. She therefore appealed to the central government to give an assurance that it will initiate an interim application to the Speaker for expediting the Nirbhaya case so that the accused can be brought to justice.
