M A I N   N E W S

Ruckus in Rajya Sabha
Amar, BJP MP come to near blows
Girja Shankar Kaura & Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 24
Scenes from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly were almost repeated in the Rajya Sabha here today. However, this time the victim party in Maharashtra , the Samajwadi Party, was the perpetrator. The tabling of the Liberhan Commission report in the Upper House saw Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh almost coming to blows with BJP senior MP SS Alhuwalia. Although both the MPs apologised to each other later for the jostling and pushing which resulted in Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan adjourning the house till 2 pm, it reflected the house in a different light. As the home minister read out a statement tabling the report, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs broke out into sloganeering of "Jai Shri Ram".

This appeared to anger Singh, who got up and advanced menacingly towards Ahluwalia, waving his right hand at him and objecting to the slogans.

The SP leader seemingly pushed Ahluwalia but was in turn violently pushed back. Members from both the SP and the BJP then joined in the chaos and in an attempt to actually push the two apart ended up in their own scuffles. Prithviraj Chavan, the minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office, also ran toward the agitated MPs but could not defuse the situation. As the jostling and pushing continued, Singh turned around abruptly and walked back to his seat. However, he then started raising the “Ya Ali” slogan.

In the midst of all this, the Deputy Chairman adjourned the house till 2 pm. This was the third adjournment of the house since the morning-the first time over the Ranganath Misra Commission report on reservations for Dalit Muslims and Christians and then over the corruption scam involving former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda. Later, apologising for the attack, Singh said: “I had asked Ahluwalia not to raise communal slogans. Mujhse galti ho gai (I made a mistake),” he said. He added that the Rajya Sabha member should not have maligned the name of Lord Ram by raising such slogans.

“It is a sad episode and for the first time I was not in control of my emotions. I request them not to provoke me and avoid sloganeering. We are old friends,” Singh told the house.