Uproar in Rajya Sabha over Selja's caste bias remark

The Rajya Sabha on Thursday witnessed three adjournments in the pre-lunch session after an uproar over former union minister and Congress member Kumari Selja's remark that she was asked about her caste at a temple in Gujarat.

Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien adjourned the house for 20 minutes at 12.17 p.m. after the leaders of the house could not reach a consensus over the issue.

Chairman Hamid Ansari had convened a meeting of the leaders before adjourning the house for 15 minutes at 12.07 p.m. to end the stalemate after the treasury benches on Wednesday sought to contradict Selja's claim that she faced caste discrimination at the temple when she visited it as a union minister.

The Rajya Sabha was first adjourned till 11.44 a.m. over the issue. When the house reassembled, union minister Piyush Goel regretted his remarks in which he had termed Selja's claim as "manufactured discrimination".

On Wednesday, Leader of the House Arun Jaitley referred to Selja's comment made during the discussion on constitution and said that contrary to her claim, Selja's comments in the visitors' book of the temple were full of "complimentary words".