Parliament adjourned over Dikshit's comments

The Speaker adjourns the proceedings after irked MPs create ruckus over the minister's remarks about people from Bihar and UP, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: May 10, 2007, 21:55:49 IST

IANS | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s remarks about people from Bihar and UP coming to Delhi looking for greener pastures irked MPs on Thursday forcing Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to adjourn the proceedings for the day.

Rajya Sabha was also adjourned for the day, albeit for a different reason. The Samajwadi Party and Congress MPs in the upper house wanted a discussion on fake encounter in Gujarat.

Later, the AIDMK MPs created noise over breakdown of law and order situation in Tamil Nadu.

In Lok Sabha, the MPs cutting across party lines including UPA allies like RJD, stormed into the well of the house demanding Dikshit’s resignation even as Congress MPs silently watched the protest. RJD MP DP Yadav counted the contribution of Bihar in development of the nation and Delhi, which was even admitted by the Speaker.

The turmoil, with large number of MPs in the well, resulted in two adjournments - first when the house commenced for an hour and second for the entire day. While making the last adjournment, the Speaker remarked, "you (MPs) will not allow the house to work today".

Outside the house, Railway Minister Laloo Prasad felt aghast at her comments and said Dikshit should not have used such harsh words for people from the two states. "Delhi would not have been same without people from Bihar and UP," he said.

The CPI too reacted sharply to Dikshit’s comment and demanded that the Delhi CM should immediately withdraw the statement and issue an apology. Gurudas Das Gupta, CPI’s leader in the Lok Sabha said in Parliament, "The remark was shameful." He added that people from UP and Bihar migrated to the Capital in search of a better life as there was little or no development in their states.

Das Gupta said that the Delhi CM should remember that the ongoing development works in Delhi is financed by central funds, which belong to the entire country. "Central funds are being diverted for Delhi’s development because it is the Capital. The funds are neither from the Delhi Government nor from the private sources. They belong to the entire country," Das Gupta said.

Dikshit was quick to react to the situation and met Leader of the House to explain her side of the story. Dikshit had claimed that her statement was distorted and she had no intention of hurting the sentiments of people from UP and Bihar.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Follow India news real-time updates and the latest news covered on Hindustan Times, featuring today's critical updates on Sonam Wangchuk LIVE and more across India.