PM faces protest at Delhi conference

New Delhi, 22/09/2012: --- Lawyer Santosh Kumar shout slogans against increase in diesel prices during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address at International Academic Conference on Economic Growth and Changes of Corporate Environment in Asia, at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on in New Delhi on 22, September, 2012. Photo: S_Subramanium

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday faced slogans as he got up to deliver his address at an international conference in New Delhi.

Lawyer Santosh Kumar Suman (32), a member of the Supreme Court Bar Association, stood on the desk, took off his shirt and shouted, “Prime Minister, go back. Roll back diesel prices.”

The incident took place at Vigyan Bhawan where Dr. Singh walked to the dais to deliver his address at the ‘Conference on Economic Growth in Asia and Changes of Corporate Environment’.

The Prime Minister waited for a while as security officials took the protestor out of the plenary hall of Vigyan Bhawan.

A senior police official said Suman, who resides in east Delhi’s Shakarpur, gained entry to the venue using a “proper” invitation card.

“The Special Protection Group (SPG) handed him over to us. He is under detention. We are investigating claims that he is a member of political party RJD,” the official said.

The conference, organised by Indian Law Institute, was attended by legal luminaries from across Asia besides Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia and Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid.