Sagar and Manoranjan D who jumped inside the Lok Sabha from the visitors' gallery on Wednesday in a huge security breach in Parliament had their passes from Pratap Simha, a BJP MP from Mysuru. When a Parliament member issues such a pass to individuals, they have to give an undertaking that they personally know the person. Pratap Simha has been drawing flak after the visitors' pass recovered from the intruders revealed his name. Though he did not issue any statement on his connection with the two intruders, he briefed the Lok Sabha Speaker that the father of one of them belonged to his constituency and sought a visitor's pass.
Pratap Simha informed the Speaker that he had no additional information about the intruders. One of them, Manoranjan D, was in constant touch with Simha's PA to get the visitor's pass for him and his friend Sagar.
Who is Pratap Simha?
1. 47-year-old BJP MP Pratap Simha represents the Mysore-Kodagu constituency in the Lok Sabha. He is a popular BJP leader in Mysuru and won both the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
2. The journalist-turned-politician made his political debut in the 2014 election before which he was working with Kannada Prabha.
3. In 2015, Pratap Simha was appointed as a Press Council of India member.
4. A staunch proponent of Hindutva, Pratap Simha was against the government's decision to celebrate Tipu Sultan's birthday as he said Tipu Sultan can only be the role model for the Islamists.
{{/usCountry}}4. A staunch proponent of Hindutva, Pratap Simha was against the government's decision to celebrate Tipu Sultan's birthday as he said Tipu Sultan can only be the role model for the Islamists.
{{/usCountry}}5. Early this year, Pratap Simha drew the ire of animal lovers as he said the dog lovers would understand the menace of stray dogs once their children are bitten. Stray dogs should be eliminated without any compassion, he said. "We are unable to take any action because of animal lovers. They realise the problem when stray dogs bite their children. Feeding stray dogs will not bring any good and it is not as big a social service as they try to project it as," the MP said.
6. Another controversial statement Pratap Simha gave was on dome-shaped bus stations as he threatened to demolish them for their mosque-like look. . "I have seen gumbaz-like structures in bus shelters, one big gumbaz in the middle and two small on both sides of it. It is nothing but a masjid (mosque). The engineers have to remove this type of shelters. Otherwise, I'll bring JCB and bring them down," Pratap Simha said.
Pratap Simha's office said MPs generally keep such requests from the people of their constituencies.
At 6.15pm on Wednesday, hours after the security breach, Pratap Simha posted a photo with the political science students of the Vidyavardhaka College taken on Monday -- probably to indicate how MPs receive several entry requests.