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Rajasthan Assembly witnesses uproar over minister Shanti Dhariwal’s comments
The opposition members were manhandled by the marshals during the uproar over minister Shanti Dhariwal’s derogatory comments in the Rajasthan legislative assembly.
JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Assembly on Thursday witnessed uproar over a derogatory comment made by parliamentary affairs minister Shanti Dhariwal during a debate on a grant to the police department on Wednesday night.
Speaker CP Joshi had to adjourn the house twice and Dhariwal gave a statement of apology twice, saying it was a slip of tongue due to which some wrong words were said by him.
The members of the opposition were manhandled by the marshals when they tried to reach the Rashtriya Loktrantrik Party (RLP) MLAs holding newspaper clips of Dhariwal’s statement. The RLP MLAs were standing amid the BJP MLAs in well demanding the minister’s apology. Later, the speaker banned the usage of things such as placards and banners in the house.
As the House assembled, Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria raised the matter and opposition members protested against the minister’s remarks.
Amid the uproar, Dhariwal tendered an apology for his comments, but the opposition continued their protest in the House. The minister’s remarks were expunged from the proceedings of the House last night.
“While replying to debate on the grant, I spoke some wrong words. It was a slip of tongue and I apologies for that. Thereafter, I had urged the speaker to remove (it) from the proceedings. I personally respect women and will continue to do so. If my comments have hurt anyone, I want to apologise,” said Dhariwal.
He continued ‘Rajasthan is a desert state and I wanted to say something for the state.’
Despite repeated directions by the Speaker to maintain order in the House, the opposition continued to protest and raised slogans against the government. A few of the MLAs in the Opposition also demanded Dhariwal’s resignation.
RLP MLAs Narayan Beniwal and Pukhraj showed some newspaper clips during the protest, to which the Speaker objected saying posters or banners are banned in the House.
When his instruction was ignored, the Speaker directed marshals to evict both the MLAs from the House. Subsequently, the Speaker adjourned the House for one hour. The house was again adjourned for half an hour as it resumed.
Leader of opposition Gulabchand Kataria said that the minister’s comments made last night were unfortunate. He said that he and others could not listen to the minister’s reply because of the uproar.
He said that the minister should give his statement once again so that the opposition members and people of the state can listen to him. After the Speaker allowed Dhariwal to speak, he again read out his statement and sought an apology for his remarks.
