Congress, Trinamool members walk out from Lok Sabha

The Congress and Trinamool Congress members walked out from the Lok Sabha on Tuesday amid an uproar over the chopping of limbs of two Dalit men in Abohar district of Punjab.

The Bharatiya Janata Party members protested when Speaker Sumitra Mahajan asked Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia to speak after the question hour.

Referring to Congress members trooping near the speaker's podium during the question hour and raising slogans against the Punjab government, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said an attempt was being made to defame an elected government.

He said the Congress members first abuse an elected government by coming near the speaker's podium and then seek to raise the issue in the house.

"Everyday, it is becoming a practice. Please understand the sentiments of the house," he said.

As Congress members raised slogans to demand the dismissal of Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party government in Punjab over the Abohar crime, Naidu said going by the same logic even the Uttar Pradesh government needed to be dismissed over the Dadri lynching incident.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said matters pertaining to the states should not be raised in the house and asked Scindia not to do so.

Scindia said there were several incidents of atrocities against Dalits and women during the past 18 months since the Modi government came to power. "This is a national issue," he said.

As soon as Scindia referred to the crushing of a school student by a bus allegedly belonging to a company owned by an Akali leader and sought to blame the ruling party leadership in Punjab, members from the treasury benches were up on their feet.

The speaker asked Scindia to sit down, as Congress members gradually gathered near the podium.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy urged Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to allow his cabinet colleague Harsimrat Kaur Badal, a Shiromani Akali Dal MP from Bathinda, to speak.

Congress and Trinamool Congress members walked out of the house soon after Harsimrat Kaur began to speak.

Harsimrat Kaur, the minister for food processing industries, said the Congress had been protesting in the Lok Sabha after a court order in the National Herald case and accused it of playing politics on issues concerning the Dalits.

She accused the Congress of trying to stall the country's progress by stalling the Goods and Services Tax Bill.

She said Dalits formed a sizeable section of the Punjab population and the state had the lowest rate of crime against the weaker sections.

Harsimrat Kaur said an arrest has been made in the case and maintained that it was a result of a clash between two gangs.

Limbs of two men were chopped off on Saturday at a farmhouse owned by an Akali Dal leader in Punjab, as per media reports.

One of the men, Bheem Tank, died on way to hospital after both his hands and legs were chopped off. Gurjant Singh, who lost one hand, was admitted to a hospital in Amritsar in a serious condition.