Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday blamed in the Lok Sabha right-wing activists for death threats, attacks and the vandalisation of his office in Thruvananthapuram on Monday last in protest against his recent ''Hindu Pakistan remarks, and demanded action against “anti-national elements” and the intervention of the Prime Minister.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar sought to distance his party (the BJP) from the attack on Mr. Tharoor’s office, saying law and order has to be dealt with by the State government.
Heated exchanges followed when Mr. Kumar said the attack was “state-sponsored”. It was countered by members of the Congress and the Left parties, leading to Deputy Speaker Thambidurai, who was in the Chair, expunging the names of the political parties they blamed from the records.
Mr. Thambidurai said the entire House was concerned over a member and his office being attacked.
Raising the issue during zero hour, Mr. Tharoor said such attacks on those who expressed dissent destroyed the idea of pluralism and violated the ground rules of the Constitution of freedom of speech and expression.
“Those who are carrying out mob lynchings and mob killings are attacking the ground rules of our democracy. The ground rule of our democracy is that we can disagree with each other without harming or killing one another,” he said
Mr. Tharoor also raised the issue of the attack on Swami Agnivesh on Tuesday in Jharkhand. He said it showed that there was no place for dissent. “We cannot and should not stand by hooliganism... the rule of law should prevail. I urge the Prime Minister to break his silence and seek action against anti-national elements.”
Minister refutes allegation
Replying to Mr. Tharoor, Mr. Kumar said the attacks were due to “state-organised terror” and the allegation that it was carried out by right-wing activists were “baseless and far from truth.”
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge accused Mr. Kumar of misleading the House as the government had all intelligence agencies, and it can find out who were involved in the attack. Mr. Kumar retorted, “Law and order is a State government issue.”
BJP member Meenakshi Lekhi too raised the issue of mob lynchings and suggested that such acts of violence were due to a “economic divide” in the country.
Some members objected to her remarks claiming that she was selectively highlighting incidents that took place in the non-BJP ruled States.