Parliament was rocked on Wednesday over reports of 11 Shiv Sena MPs, incensed at not being served Maharashtrian food, last week forcing a Muslim catering supervisor to break his Ramzan fast at the New Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi. Opposition MPs protested in both Houses of Parliament, even as Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu dismissed the allegations as “unsubstantiated”.
“We are dealing with a sensitive issue. Let us not try to rouse communal passions unnecessarily. Nobody knows the truth. Let the Chair get the facts and then we can discuss it,” Mr. Naidu said, a line repeated in the Rajya Sabha by his deputy, Prakash Javadekar. Outside Parliament, too BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy defended the Sena, saying the party had no intention of hurting anyone’s religious feelings, even as party veteran L.K. Advani described the action as “wrong”.