Sangma Admonishes Mps For Uproar Over Patel Speech

Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma yesterday admonished members for creating a ruccus in the Lok Sabha merely a few hours before the mid-night sitting of the two Houses of Parliament to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Indian Independence, on the pretext that the speech of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel should also have been read out in the special sitting along with Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Apologising to Members if they had the impression that the omission of his name was purposely done to belittle his contribution in the freedom struggle, Sangma said it was impractical to make any changes when the function was only a few hours away.

Ugly scenes were enacted in the House by some Members of BJP and Congress who said that the government was not giving due respect to the first Home Minister of the country.

This led to Members from the South shouting for their own respective freedom fighters and wanted that they should also be remembered included in the midnight function.

Sangma explained that the names of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru was decided by a special committee consisting of members of all parties. Later on, there was demand in the House to include Subhas Boses speech also in the session, which was supported by all sections in the House.

Sangma further said that at no stage any other name was suggested by any Member. He also clarified that non inclusion of their speeches in the special session, did not mean disrespect to them.

BJP leader and former Prime Minsiter A B Vajpayee then intervened and requested his own party MPs not to create ugly scenes in the House on an issue on which there could not be any division in the House.