The Parliament premises on Monday saw opposition leaders staging a protest, demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi make a statement in the House on the Manipur issue. Interestingly, the BJP MPs countered it by raking up alleged atrocities against women in Rajasthan.
The leaders of newly-formed INDIA held placards and banners that read "INDIA for Manipur" and "INDIA demands PM's statement on Manipur", before the monsoon session was to start. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said it is the prime minister's duty to make a comprehensive statement in Parliament on Manipur violence. "It is shameful that the prime minister is making a statement outside the House, when Parliament is in session. It is his duty to make a comprehensive statement inside Parliament on Manipur violence," the Congress leader said.
"We are requesting the Chairman of Rajya Sabha and the Speaker of Lok Sabha that the PM should make a statement on the situation in Manipur. We want a discussion under Rule 167 but the Modi government wants a short duration discussion under Rule 176 for half an hour.We want under Rule 267 under which there can also be voting," he said, adding that the prime minister should first make a statement and then we will have a discussion under Rule 267.
Meanwhile, the BJP MPs demanded that the state government led by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot be dismissed in view of the alleged crimes against women. Women MPs of the party too carried placards and raising slogans while gathered in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue urging the Rajasthan government to wake up to the failing law and order situation in the state. "We have gathered here to protest against the corruption and atrocities in Rajasthan," Mala Rajya Laxmi, Lok Sabha member from Tehri Garhwal in Uttarakhand, said.
Rajasthan BJP president Chandra Prakash Joshi demanded that the Rajasthan chief minister should step down over allegations of increasing crimes against women in the state."Rajasthan has a glorious history, but in the last three years it has emerged as the number one state in atrocities against women, particularly dalits and the poor," Joshi said.
(With inputs from PTI)