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Various Congress MPs, including Randeep Surjewala, Rajani Patil and Shashi Tharoor condemned the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday claiming that the latter had disrupted the protest of the opposition at the Parliament premises and allegedly obstructed their party leader Rahul Gandhi from entering the parliament.
"Today is a day of a blot on the Indian parliamentary system and a dark blot on democracy. The entire nation witnessed two days ago how in Rajya Sabha Home Minister Amit Shah brazenly insulted Babasaheb Ambedkar. He made fun of the teachings (of Babasaheb Ambedkar)," Surjewala told reporters. His remarks came after an alleged scuffle between the opposition and ruling party, injuring two BJP MPs, Pratap Chandra Sarangi and Mukesh Rajput. Both the MPs were admitted to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and are being treated for their injuries. Surjewala said that even though Opposition parties have been protesting against the remarks of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Ambedkar, the BJP had taken out a protest "with criminal intent to create disorder." "For many days at Makar Dwar, all opposition parties including the Congress party have been protesting on various issues relating to people today. For the first time, BJP MPs came with a criminal intent to create disorder," he added. He further alleged that the BJP chose to target their party's president Mallikarjun Kharge. "They chose to target and attack the President of the Indian National Congress Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also the Leader of the Opposition. As he came in, he was pushed by BJP MPs. He lost his balance...This goondaism of the BJP is condemnable." Party MP Rajani Patil alleged that the BJP is trying to malign the image of their party leader, and said that Kharge himself had to sit on the floor due to being pushed around. "You (BJP) yourself are giving wrong statements. Now, when the reactions to it are coming from the whole nation, then you are trying to malign the image of our leader (Rahul Gandhi). This is wrong," she told ANI. Talking about how it is difficult for Kharge to sit on the floor due to his knee surgery, she added, "Secondly, our leader Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge had to sit on the floor due to the scuffle. However, he is not able to sit on the floor due to his knee operation...But we don't do drama. We don't need to show off." MP Shashi Tharoor said that the scuffle between MPs is really bad for the Parliament. He also mentioned that they had listened to LS Speaker comments regarding protests on parliament steps, and had gone to the Ambedkar statute instead. "...the Speaker had clearly said that you should not protest on the steps because it causes obstruction in people's movement. So, we protested in front of Babasaheb's statue...I think such things are extremely bad for Parliament," Tharoor told ANI. Earlier, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and multiple other party MPs wrote to LS Speaker Om Birla regarding the scuffle. KC Venugopal, K Suresh and Manickam Tagore wrote to the speaker and alleged that the INDIA Bloc MPs were physically obstructed from entering and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi was physically manhandled by three MPs from the ruling party. Kharge too had written to Birla, alleging that he was "physically assaulted" by BJP MPs during the protest. "When I reached Makar Dwar along with the INDIA parties MPs, I was physically pushed by BJP MPs. Thereafter, I lost my balance and was forced to sit down on the ground in front of Makar Dwar. This inflicted injury on my knees which have already undergone surgery," he said in his letter. (ANI)
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