The Rajya Sabha on Thursday witnessed uproarious scenes over a remark by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
The Opposition demanded an ‘apology’ from Mr. Jaitley, who allegedly made some remarks on Congress MP Kumari Sailja.
On Wednesday Ms.Selja's told the Upper House that she had faced discrimination because of her caste in a temple in Gujarat a few years ago.
As soon as the House met for the day at 11 am, Mr.Jaitley, Finance Minister and Leader of the House, referred to the issue and said Ms.Selja had, in fact, said very “complimentary words” during her visit to the Dwarka temple in February 2013.
Amid slogan shouting from the Opposition, the House was adjourned for 30 minutes.
When the House resumed, Power Minister Piyush Goyal expressed regret on his remarks on Ms. Sailja. However, as the opposition protest continued, the Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 2 p.m.
The Congress MPs are protesting statements of union ministers Arun Jaitley and Piyush Goyal disputing the version of Kumari Selja that she was asked about her caste in the Gujarat temple.
Earlier report from our Correspondent Smita Gupta:
A statement by Congress MP and former Cabinet Minister Kumari Selja on Monday that she had faced discrimination at a temple in Gujarat a few years ago because she was a Dalit, saw the government disputing her account 48 hours later. The result: the Rajya Sabha was plunged into chaos after Ms Selja stuck to her version and the Opposition demanded that the government withdraw the statement and apologise to her.
On Wednesday morning, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is also the Leader of the Upper House, produced a page of the visitors’ book of the Dwarkadheesh temple in which she had lauded the “excellent” arrangements: Ms Selja pointed out that in her speech on Monday itself, she had clarified that she was not referring to the main Dwarkadheesh temple but to BetDwarka, a smaller temple in Dwarka. To make matters worse, even as Mr.Jaitley quoted the visitor’s book and Ms.Selja countered it, Power Minister Piyush Goyal leapt up to describe her statement as an instance of “manufactured problems” and “manufactured discrimination”.
The House remained gridlocked for the greater part of the day, with the Congress, backed by most other Opposition parties, insisting that the ruling party should withdraw its comments made against Ms Selja and offer her an apology. MoS for Parliamentary Affairs Mukthar Abbas Naqvi suggested that comments made by both sides should be expunged, but this was not accepted by the Congress. To this, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, descrining Mr Goyal’s statement as “totally uncalled for”, said that “this was almost like calling her (Selja) a liar… But this is a self goal. Leader of the House made a statement and the matter should have ended there. Why cast aspersions and call her names.”
After Congress MPs led by Ms Selja entered the well of the House shouting “Narendra Modi maafi mango (Modi apologise) and Narendra Modi hai hai”, disrupted proceedings, Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien called leaders of various parties to his chamber to find a solution after adjourning the House for some time. Those who attended the meeting included Mr.Jaitley, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and leaders of some other parties apart from Ms Selja.
