Debate in LS kicks off with Rajnath, Salim exchange

Mayawati hits out at BJP govt in the Rajya Sabha, but says will support the GST Bill

The Lok Sabha on Monday saw repeated adjournments as it took up a debate on ‘intolerance.’ The Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Mohammed Salim attributed certain Hindutva remarks to home minister Rajnath Singh, who denied those outrightly and demanded an apology. This led to several adjournments in the lower House. Salim quoted a news magazine while initiating the debate on intolerance and attributed certain Hindutva remarks to Singh.

An infuriated Singh said, “Mohammed Salim levelled a serious allegation against me. He should say when and where I made such a statement or apologise... A home minister who makes such a statement has no moral right to be the home minister. I speak after weighing every word... People know Rajnath Singh can never make such a statement.” When asked to apologise, Salim refused. “I have no qualms against Rajnath Singh. In fact, I would have been happy if, instead of Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh was the Prime Minister.” He later said: “I will go by the Speaker’s ruling. The Speaker said ‘pause and  move ahead’.”

In the Rajya Sabha, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati accused Prime Minister Modi of being “silent,” even as his partymen and ministers made incendiary statements and questioned the government’s commitment to the tenets of the Constitution. But, she extended her support to the goods and services (GST) Bill, saying: “You won’t need to offer us tea, not even a glass of water, to get our support.”

Attacking the government over the rising “intolerance, communalism and anarchy” in the country, she demanded action against V K Singh, minister of state for external affairs, for his remarks over the killing of Dalit children in Haryana. Mayawati demanded the minister be dropped from the council of ministers and “sent to jail as such people deserve to be in jail and not in Parliament.”

During a discussion on the Constitution, she attacked the Congress, too.

Mayawati said the party had not given B R Ambedkar his due respect as the architect of the Constitution.

She accused the Congress of “rendering ineffective” the move to provide quota in promotion by not deploying adequate legal resource to take up the matter in the Supreme Court.

"Modi, in his speech in the Lok Sabha on November 27, gave many suggestions about celebrating the 125th birth anniversary of Ambedkar. But a real tribute to him would have been an announcement of reservation in the private sector as well as a Bill to guarantee reservation in promotions," she said.

She raised a few eyebrows when she demanded quota for the poor among the upper castes.

Alluding to Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's proposal for a review of quotas, she said, "I am warning if there is any such attempt from the government, I will take to the streets against it and hold a massive agitation against it. I will not allow any such attempt to succeed."