The Lok Sabha on Friday witnessed multiple disruptions as Opposition and Treasury members nearly came to blows after Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan used the Question Hour to criticise former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, made at an election rally earlier.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla held separate meetings with Congress leaders and Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi and Harsh Vardhan following the commotion but it failed to break the deadlock as Congress insisted on an apology from the Minister.
Blame game
As the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day at 2 p.m., Congress and BJP leaders engaged in a blame game.
While Mr. Gandhi maintained that the Health Minister was instructed by “someone else” to prevent him from speaking in Parliament, Dr. Vardhan said Congress members wanted to “attack him and snatch his papers”.
The fracas started at 11.50 a.m. when Mr. Gandhi mentioned a starred question regarding a medical college in his constituency, Wayanad, during the Question Hour.
“Sir, please excuse me. Before I begin answering this question of dear Shri Rahul Gandhi ji, I want to condemn in no uncertain words the outlandish language that he has used against the Prime Minister of the country,” Dr. Vardhan said.
Though Speaker Om Birla asked the Minister to stick to the subject, Dr. Vardhan continued and condemned the ‘outlandish’ statement made by the former Congress chief.
“In a recent speech, he (Gandhi) used words like 6 mahina baad, iss desh ka yuva, Narendra Modi ko dande maar maar ke desh se bahar karenge (after six months, youth of the country would beat Modi with sticks and throw him out),” the Minister quoted the Congress leader’s speech that Mr. Modi had also referred to on Thursday. The Congress MPs then trooped into the Well of the House. Manickam Tagore from Tamil Nadu moved towards the Minister aggressively at which BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh held him by the arm. Mr. Singh is incidentally the president of the Wrestling Federation of India. Congress MP from Kerala Hibi Eden also tried to intervene.
Irani intervenes
Several MPs from both sides, including Union Minister Smriti Irani, prevented them from coming to blows. “Guys, what are you doing? What is going on?” Ms. Irani was heard saying.
Opposition members protesting in the Lok Sabha.
Later, Mr. Tagore wrote a letter to the Speaker in which he accused Mr. Singh of manhandling and “threatening to kill” him.
“It is highly uncalled for. If anything is wrongly spoken then it is up to the Speaker to take a call but trying to attack the Minister is condemnable,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mr. Joshi told the Lok Sabha when it reassembled at 2 p.m.
“In a completely unparliamentary manner, the Health Minister raised something that I said outside which he has no business doing during Question Hour….Perhaps, he was instructed by someone else to raise another issue,” Mr. Gandhi told reporters after meeting the Speaker along with Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
Asked to comment on Mr. Modi calling him a tube light, he said, “Our Prime Minister does not have those rules, he does not behave in a Prime Ministerial way and there is not much I can say.”
