Caravan News
NEW DELHI — The opposition staged a walkout from the lower house of the Parliament on Monday in protest when BJP MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma was chosen to deliver a motion of thanks to the President of India. Last week Verma was in trouble after he delivered hate speeches during election rallies in Delhi.
Before this, the opposition shouted slogans “Goli Maarna Band Karo (stop firing bullets)” in Parliament when junior Finance Minister Anurag Thakur stood up to reply the questions from lawmakers on the economy. At least 30 lawmakers assembled in the centre of the Lok Sabha, waved placards and also shouted “Shame, Shame”.
Takur faced a massive public ire after he shouted slogans from the stage during a rally exhorting the crowd to “shoot the traitors in reference to protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Verma too had made provocative statements, claiming that anti CAA protestors of Shaheen Bagh “will enter your houses, rape your sisters and daughters”. He also called Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a terrorist.
The protestors allege that the back to back shooting incidents near the protest sites in Jamia Millia and Shaheen bagh is a consequence of the hate speeches by the BJP leaders instigating their foot soldiers to commit acts of violence against protestors.
The Election Commission reprimanded the two lawmakers and asked BJP to demote them from the first line of campaigners.
However, the minister and the BJP lawmaker had escaped with mild censure from the Election Commission despite three incidents of firing at protesters in Shaheen Bagh and neighbouring Jamia Millia Islamia, the heart of anti-CAA protests in the capital, since then. The government and the BJP have not taken any action against them yet.
The teachers association of Jamia Millia also slammed Anurag thakur and blamed his speech for the incidents of violence.
