Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien on Friday adjourned the House proceedings after members of the Samajwadi Party protested against the communal clashes in Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj, PTI reported. Aam Aadmi Party MPs were also seen protesting against the market sealing drives conducted by the Bharatiya Janata Party-dominated corporations in Delhi.
Kurien had asked the Samajwadi Party to give a notice before raising the matter of the Kasganj violence. Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav, however, voiced his protest against the violence in the Uttar Pradesh town. “Atrocities are being perpetrated against minorities in Kasganj...they are being supressed,” Yadav said, while his party colleagues rallied loudly in his favour. They stormed to the well of the House.
The death of a 22-year-old on January 26 had sparked communal clashes in Kasganj city.
The deputy chairman, however, declined to let the House discuss the Kasganj violence at that hour. “I cannot ask the government [to reply on the issue]. It is up to them,” Kurien said, while adding that 15 members had other matters to discuss according to the schedule during Zero Hour.
Meanwhile, Congress leader KVP Ramachandra Rao staged a protest of his own by holding a placard that read “Help Andhra Pradesh”. Kurien ordered Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad to ask Rao to return to his seat. “Has he gone mad?” Kurien asked, while threatening to penalise him.
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