Issue of intolerance to come up in Lok Sabha tomorrow

A fierce row erupted in Parliament today during a debate on “rising intolerance”, over a controversial comment attributed to Home Minister Rajnath Singh by Left lawmaker Mohammad Salim.

Another adjournment motion on the issue of intolerance was also disallowed as a discussion on the subject was already on the agenda of the House for the day.

The debate was initiated by CPM’s Mohd Salim where he went on refer to a magazine article saying Rajnath Singh had said Modi was a hindu leader.

Earlier, the ruling and the opposition sides locked horns after Salim alleged that Rajnath was quoted by the magazine as having made the “Hindu leader” remark after Narendra Modi became prime minister previous year.

But the stalemate persisted and the house was adjourned till 3.15 p.m. Mayawati demanded the minister be dropped from the council of ministers and “sent to jail as such people deserve to be in jail and not in Parliament”.

Responding to Rajnath Singh, Salim said, “I was quoting from a magazine”.

“I have never been so much hurt in my parliamentary life”.

Salim, however, said he would not withdraw his remarks.

As the impasse continued, the speaker adjourned the house for an hour. “All eminent writers, historians are expressing a serious concern of intolerance in the country”, he said.

To this, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said “a member has made an allegation, let the Chair give a ruling and move forward….”

Congress member K C Venugopal cited all the incidents ranging from killings of activists, returning of awards to statements by various BJP Members which he said had contributed to atmosphere of intolerance, but the PM had not responded.

The government has been facing flak from different quarters on the issue of “growing intolerance” in the wake of the Dadri lynching, the beef row and incidents of communal violence.

“Both-the opposition and Rajnath Singh-have a particular type of politics to pursue”.

She accused the Congress of “rendering ineffective” the move to provide quota in promotion by not deploying adequate legal resource to take up the matter in the Supreme Court.

“We would like to have suggestions on how to stop it, from members who think intolerance is growing”, he said in the Lok Sabha, adding the government felt there was no such probelm.