‘Not your Haryana Assembly’, Birla admonishes Selja

Animesh Singh

New Delhi, July 24

Congress leader and Sirsa Lok Sabha MP Kumar Selja was admonished by Speaker Om Birla as she repeatedly referred to her home state Haryana while initiating the discussion on the Union Budget, reminding her that she was not addressing the legislative Assembly.

Selja, who spoke at length on alleged regional disparities, said no mention was made of Haryana and two other poll-bound states of Maharashtra and Jharkhand (in the Budget speech by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman).

As she continued to speak about the travails of Haryana’s youth while referring to the Agniveer scheme, Birla interrupted her speech and asked whether how the Finance Minister would reply to her queries as she was speaking on Haryana. “I would like to remind you that this is not the Haryana legislative Assembly. How do you think the Finance Minister will answer your queries?” the Speaker said.

To this, Selja jokingly replied that just as he (Birla) loved Rajasthan, she too should be allowed to mention about Haryana.