Smriti irani s goddess durga remark stalls parliament congress seeks apology

Vemula’s mother launched a no-holds-barred attack on Irani, accusing her of resorting to “blatant lies” while talking in Parliament about her son’s suicide and that “life imprisonment” will not be enough for her and others “responsible” for his death. “The way you are behaving, I am constrained to say, is akin to Kalanemi (Ravana’s uncle) reading the Hanuman Chalisa”.

“I will be giving a notice for breach of privilege against Irani to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for misleading the House on Rohith Vemula issue”, Saleem said.

Mayawati went as far as to ask if Irani would keep her word on beheading herself since she had failed to include a Dalit member in the judicial commission probing Vemula’s death. “Government’s intention is dubious on this”, she said, adding that the government is out to save the accused “all of who are from the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)”.

HRD Minister Smriti Irani should know that university students are “not her baccha” nor “do we need a mother like her”, said former JNU Students’ Union vice-president Anant Prakash Narayan, one of the students charged with sedition for the controversial February 9 event. She said that she was present there and it was she who declared Rohith dead.

Smriti said,”I being a Durga worshipper was in great pain when I read.It was an authenticated document”. Continuing with the short duration discussion on higher education in higher universities with reference to Jawaharlal Nehru University and Hyderabad Central University, Mr Yechury did not spare the Minister and beseeched her not to pass unverified statements as facts.

Replying to questions raised by Mayawati on Vemula not getting fellowship payments, the HRD Minister said the Dalit scholar’s last fellowship payment was stopped as he was asked to file some documents.

Yechury questioned the veracity of the Facebook account that she had claimed to be that of Vemula.

As the upper House met for the day’s business on Friday, the opposition members were on their feet demanding Irani’s apology for reading out in the house “blasphemous” comments about the goddess from a pamphlet allegedly written and distributed by some JNU students. The Congress staged a walk out during Irani’s speech.

Earlier, besides Sharma, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad had also termed it a “very serious issue” and said the “minister should apologise for what she said yesterday.”Azad said there were campaigns against many religious figures but the same language can not be used in the House”.

Speaking in the RS today, the Congress leader Anand Sharma said, “Anything inflammatory about any God, Prophet, spoken by any member, especially the minister, will not be taken”.

Mayawati also said that Irani had on Wednesday apologised to her in the Parliament lobby for her aggression and sought forgiveness.