Bhubaneswar: Opposition BJP and Congress continued to fight in the House Tuesday over alleged derogatory remarks made against senior Congress leaders Mani Shankar Aiyar and Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Congress Legislature Party leader Narasingha Mishra said, “Yesterday, I had stated that it is definitely a matter of grave concern that on Mahatma’s death anniversary January 30 bullets were fired at his photograph.”
Some people started building temple of Mahatma’s killer Nathuram Godse and a debate had been started about Mahatma versus Godse, Mishra said.
“I have not taken any name or party. However, BJP deputy leader in Assembly, Bishnu Charan Sethi, had made derogatory remark against two Congress leaders Aiyar and Sidhu,” he said, adding, he tried to brand them as ‘anti-national’.
As the persons (Aiyar and Sidhu) are not present in the House, making such remark against them is against the practices of Parliament, the Congress leader advocated reading out the concerned section mentioned in the book Practice & Procedure in Parliament written by MN Kaul and SL Shakdher.
The Congress legislator has demanded to expunge the remark of Sethi from the Assembly record. With this development, Congress members including Taraprasad Bahinipati and Suresh Routray moved to the podium of the Speaker and demanded immediate ruling on this issue.
However, Speaker SN Patro asked Sethi to clear his stand. Protesting this move, Congress members started creating noisy scenes in the House. BJP and Congress members were also engaged in verbal duel. Amidst this, Sethi presented his reply saying such outsiders have been named earlier.
“If naming outsiders in the House is against the ethics, that rule should be applicable to all and you have to ensure the House that no one names any outsider anymore,” he urged the Speaker.
After examining all the matters, Speaker in the evening ordered to expunge the remark made by Sethi from the record. Patro said members should be cautious enough while making any statement against a person, who is not present in the House.