Parl Roundup: An Emotional Smriti Irani Gives a History Lesson
Follow the latest updates from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha parliament sessions on The Quint.
Rajnath Singh takes off from where Smriti Irani left the discussion off.
Members of the House listen to his speech. Congress leaders walked out of the House so there is not much opposition.
If the police have charged someone with sedition, the court will look into it. If it is fair, the court will punish them and if not, the charges will be quashed.
“I want to assure the House that no innocent student will be punished,” says Rajnath Singh congratulating Smriti Irani for her speech.
‘Help Me Help the Students’
Smriti Irani says, “I wish Congress leaders were in the House today. I would’ve told them that even Indira Gandhi had lost power. But her son never sided with those who indulged in anti-India slogans”.
I try to do justice to these students every day. If we all try, we can certainly move away from the deplorable situation where a child’s death is being used as a political tool.
The Congress leaders had walked out of the House amid ruckus midway through Irani’s speech.
Irani takes another step forward in her attack on the Congress.
“What should we teach school teachers, I wondered? And I looked at a copy of this history book.”
Irani reads out lines from history books that border on an anti-India sentiment in Kashmir. She says it’s not surprising that when our children go to colleges, they say, “the fight will continue till Kashmir is free”.
“Rahul Gandhi had said in the past that all V-Cs belong to the RSS. I challenge them to find one person who says that they have indulged in “saffronisation”, I will quit politics,” Smriti Irani said.
Smriti Irani’s Version of the JNU Row
The HRD minister also addresses the controversy surrounding the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. She reads out some of the anti-India slogans that were raised inside the varsity campus during the Afzal Guru event.
Smriti Irani reads out the names of students, named by the JNU faculty in the probe report. The names include JNU Students’ Union Kanhaiya Kumar, Anirban Bhattacharya, Umar Khaled among others.
Irani says the report was prepared by faculty members who worked with heads of the varsity, appointed by the previous UPA government.
The HRD minister reads out another pamphlet by another group of students slamming goddess Durga in support of Mahishasur. Irani says, “May be they are students and they should be forgiven. But what is this depravity? Where does it come from?”
Smriti Irani Gets Emotional Discussing Rohith Vemula
HRD Minister Smriti Irani gets emotional in Lok Sabha explaining her stand on the Rohith Vemula issue.
Talking about being cornered by the Congress, she said, “ I will not apologise for doing my duty. If you have the courage, you should listen to my answer today”.
The minister also said that she is being targeted for fighting the Lok Sabha election in 2014 against Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.
Amid ruckus by Congress leaders, Venkaiah Naidu tells Speaker Sumitra Mahajan that as a mother, Irani feels for the student.
Smriti Irani gets emotional. She says,
“Rohith Vemula’s body was hidden so that it can be used as a political tool,” says Smriti Irani.
Smriti Irani hits out at Rahul Gandhi too. She says, “Has Rahul Gandhi ever visited a place twice in his career? Never. But here, he saw a political opportunity. So he went there”.
BJP Brands Everyone Anti-National: Owaisi
AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi also lashed out at BJP for branding everyone anti-national who speak against their RSS ideology. No one in the country can live peacefully if they do not play according to the government.
We Are More Patriotic: Kharge
Mallikarjun Kharge, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, hit back at the BJP almost as soon as Venkaiah Naidu finished his speech.
Kharge strongly objected to Naidu’s comments on the Congress party and its interests in the ideological debate over the JNU issue. Speaking of Afzal Guru’s he said,
Venkaiah Naidu Clears BJP’s Stand on All Issues
As the Lok Sabha proceeded without any major interruptions, Venkaiah Naidu brought back a little noise as he defended the government over the JNU crisis.
“Nobody can brand an entire university or all students as ‘anti-national’. Some fellows inspired by Maoist ideology are trying to misguide them,” Venkaiah said.
He also addressed the PhD scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide and said,
Listing five other cases of suicides in the university, he requested that the Parliament focus on the bigger issue, like why the students were committing suicide, and try to find remedies for it. He was hopeful that the probe may bring out the truth about the reason for cases like these.
Naidu also condemned the attack on JNU Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar and journalists at the Patiala House Court.
He slammed the Congress party saying the party should conduct a poll to understand public sentiment on the Afzal Guru issue. He said, “Even if the poll is online, 99 percent of the people are on one side and only 1 percent, a handful of people are on the other”.
BJD MP Praises the Government But Accuses It of Hiding Economic Failures
BJD MP Tathagata Satpathy started his speech in dismay, attacking both sides for their actions in the JNU row. He railed against everyone who supported the protesters at JNU, saying that it was democracy that allowed Afzal Guru to go from one court to another and finally to the SC to get justice, extending his life for 11 years after committing the crime. There should be no mercy for people like Afzal, he added.
Smoothly shifting his stance, he said that the country supported the BJP in the beginning, but it was their own actions that worsened their situation. The mute police, the response of the Home Minister to fake tweets, and the comments of the Delhi Commissioner of Police has turned the people against the government, he said.
Finally, he blamed the government for the appalling economic fares of the country and said that they were trying to distract the country from this grave situation.
TMC MP Calms the Fight, Makes Points Against Sedition
Rajya Sabha adjourned till tomorrow as protests continued by BSP members.
Anurag Thakur Attacks Congress and Family Politics
After an aggressive Jyotiraditya Scindia attacked the BJP government over the JNU issue, the ruling party’s Anurag Thakur gave him a strong response. Thakur questioned why Rahul Gandhi was standing with Afzal Guru’s supporters. He accused the Congress of believing in, “Family first, party next and nation last.”
Thakur brought up the Emergency, saying it’s ironic that those who clamped down on the people of India back then are now talking about the freedom of speech.
Leave and Let Live in India instead of Make in India: Jyotiraditya Scindia
Lok Sabha holds discussion on Rohit Vemula suicide and JNU row. Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia addressed the Lok Sabha, and said that the BJP is using government machinery to crush voices like Rohith’s and Kanhaiya’s. The country is witnessing an atmosphere of intolerance, he added.
Our country is like a bouquet, in which every religion, every caste spreads its scent. On one hand the government promotes Baba Saheb’s values while on the other hand it spreads its outrage on Dalits.
Rajya Sabha has been adjourned till 3:45 pm due to continuous protests by BSP MPs the Rohith Vemula case.
JNU Discussed in the Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha advanced the discussion on the raging JNU row from 24 February to 23 February. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, following the demand of the Congress and the willingness of the government, brought the discussion forward.
Congress Leader Mallikarjun Kharge said it would be good if the matter is taken up on Wednesday as the “issue is very important and discussions are going on everywhere”. Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi were present in the House.
However, other Opposition parties opposed the move.
Call Drop in the Lok Sabha
The Opposition rallied forces to target the government on the issue of call drops saying the problem continues unabated. The government maintained that “stringent measures” have been put in place to check the problem at the earliest.
Responding to a volley of questions in the Lok Sabha, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said nearly 65,000 BTS (Base Transceiver Stations) have been set up across country, including Delhi, in four months time.
Amidst Umar Khaled, Anirban Bhattacharya and Kanhaiya Kumar’s ongoing interrogation, Prasad had this to say:
Stormy Rajya Sabha Session Over Rohith Vemula
The first working day of the budget session in Rajya Sabha also started on a stormy note as the House faced repeated adjournments over the suicide of Dalit student Rohith Vemula. Slogan-shouting BSP members, led by Mayawati, trooped into the Well several times, seeking resignation of some Union Ministers.
Amid sloganeering by BSP, HRD Minister Smriti Irani said the opposition was using a “dead child” (Rohith) as “a political tool and strategy” and asked the Opposition to discuss the issue “right now”.
BSP members forced five adjournments in the pre-lunch session raising slogans that the “anti-Dalit, anti-Ambedkar” government will not be allowed to run, even as party chief Mayawati dubbed the incident an “insult to 25 crore dalits” in the country.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)