The Rajasthan Legislative Assembly on Thursday witnessed pandemonium for over 15 minutes when the Chief Whip of ruling BJP Jogeshwar Garg demanded an apology from Congress MLA Shravan Kumar for making a derogatory remark against ‘Baba and Saint’ while speaking on Grants for Demands last night.
Urging Speaker Vasudev Devnani to expunge the offensive words spoken by the MLA, the Chief Whip warned that the House would not run until the MLA issues a verbal apology.
The House went into turmoil when Parliamentary Affairs Minister Jogaram Patel, along with MLAs, Baba Balaknath, Pratap Puri, Balmukund (all BJP), asked Shravan Kumar to apologise. Senior Congress MLA Rajendra Pareek tried to convince the House that the undesirable words of Shravan could be expunged and he appealed to the treasury benches not to create a controversy over the issue but they did not concede and shouted against all the Congress legislators.
The Speaker issued a ruling that no member should make any personal remark against any person, religion or caste, and the derogatory remarks are expunged, but the Chief Whip of Ruling Garg objected to his order and exhorted his party (BJP) against accepting this until Shravan tenders an apology. Both sides stood up on their seats and exchanged allegations and counter allegations against each other prompting the Speaker to adjourn the House for 15 minutes.
After the House reassembled, Pareek told the House that his party respected the Speaker’s ruling for removing such remarks from the proceedings. But BJP MLA Balaknath moved up to the well and reiterated the demand for an apology. He was, however, pulled back to his seat by Garg and others.
There was a lot of uproar in the assembly over the comment, due to which the proceedings of the assembly had to be adjourned for a while. However, Speaker Vasudev Devnani ordered the removal of Shravan Kumar’s comment from the proceedings of the House.
During the debate on Demands for Grants, when Shravan started speaking, BJP MLA Balaknath again objected to it and was adamant on their demand for Apology.
Amidst the uproar, Balaknath warned the Congress member, “Apologize, I will gather the saint community from all over the country for protest. I will not let you leave the House. You should clarify your position on your statement otherwise I will not let you speak”.
“It is my job to gather the entire Sant Samaj from your Vidhan Sabha to your home. I will not let you go out of the house. You clarify what you believe. On this Shravan Kumar said that they are saying that they will not let you live, so let me tell you that I do not even like to live. I prefer to die but do not like to bow down. I am not going to be suppressed by such bullying, I follow the system of the president”, the duo charged each other. This again led the Speaker to adjourn the House for another 15 minutes.