Arunachal student's death to be discussed in parliament

Parliament will discuss the alleged assault and subsequent death of an Arunachal Pradesh student in Delhi last week, P.D.Rai, the Lok Sabha MP from Sikkim, said after an all-party meeting here.

The all-party meet was convened to discuss the agenda of the last session of the 15th Lok Sabha that will pass the vote-on-account (in place of a regular budget) for the remaining four months, before the elections which are likely in April.

"This is an important issue and needs to be debated in full by parliament. So I raised the issue at the meet," Rai, who is also the spokesperson of the Sikkim Democratic Front, told IANS.

Rai is the secretary of the Northeast MPs Forum.

The suggestion was endorsed by Finance Minister P.Chidambaram, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath, who represented the government, and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders L.K.Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley. All of them agreed that the hate crime and associated issue of discrimination against and targeting of "outsiders" in Delhi should be debated properly and solutions discussed.

This session of the Lok Sabha begins Tuesday and ends Feb 21.

Nido Tania, son of Arunachal Pradesh Congress legislator Nido Pavitra, died Jan 30 after being allegedly beaten up by two shopkeepers following a row over his appearance and clothing in south Delhi's Lajpat Nagar I market.