Lok Sabha boils over Tarun Vijay’s ‘racist’ remark

New Delhi: BJP leader Tarun Vijay’s racist remarks against south Indians caused huge uproar in Lok Sabha as the Congress-led Opposition demanded that he be booked for sedition. Despite assurances from Union home minister Rajnath Singh and parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar that Mr Vijay had apologised for his comments as they were “indefensible”, the unrelenting Opposition disrupted the proceedings in the Lower House thrice and finally staged a walkout.

The trouble started as soon as the House met for the day at 11 am, when Congress MPs K.C. Venugopal and Mallikarjun Kharge tried raising the issue during Question Hour. Despite Speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s assurance that they will be allowed to do so during Zero Hour, Congress and Left MPs entered the well of the house, forcing an adjournment for 10 minutes at 11.10 am.

Later during the Zero Hour, Mr Kharge, while raising the issue, read out Mr Vijay’s comments and said that in a secular country where everyone citizen irrespective of caste, colour or creed, is one, there is a party which wants to paint the nation into a single colour.

“We want to know whether south Indians are citizens of India or not? Is he (Mr Vijay) from Germany (referring to the BJP leader’s comments) and is he a successor of Hitler? Do you want to divide the nation? This shows that the Government is backing such thoughts. What action will be taken against him? Will there be an FIR?” Mr Kharge sought to know.

The senior Congress MP added that Mr Vijay’s remarks are a “threat” to the unity of the country and “you want to divide this country”, Mr Kharge said pointing at the treasury benches, where the home minister, parliamentary affairs minister and veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani were sitting.

“Iske khilaf desh drohi ke roop mein FIR honi chahiye, usne desh ko todne ki baat kahi hai (an FIR should be lodged against him under sedition charges. He is speaking about breaking the nation),” Mr Kharge added.

Amid shouting by Opposition MPs from the Congress and the Left, with even AIADMK MPs standing in their places, Mr Kharge said, “I would like to know as to what action you are going to take and the Government must tell us otherwise we have to agitate against this problem not only inside the House but also outside. I want action to be taken against this.”

At this juncture Mr Rajnath Singh got up to respond and said that the concerned person (without naming Mr Vijay) has already apologised saying that his comments are ‘indefensible’.

Asserting that “Bharat is a secular country,” Mr Singh said there would be no discrimination based on caste, creed, colour and religion. “The individual has already said that his remarks are indefensible”, he added quoting Mr Vijay.

Since the individual has already apologised, there is no need to raise any more questions about it, the Home Minister said, adding he would not mention the name. However as the protests continued even after Mr Singh’s statement, the Speaker said “this (House) is not a court.”

With unrelenting Opposition members shouting slogans like ‘Modi sarkar jawab do-jawab do (Modi government should respond)’, ‘Desh ka vibhajan nahin chalega (Won’t allow division of country)’ and ‘We want FIR (against Vijay)’, and trooping into the well of the House, Ms Mahajan again adjourned the House at 12.20 pm for 25 minutes. When the House met at 12.45 pm, similar chaotic scenes were witnessed as the Opposition members again stormed the well of the House.

Mr Ananth Kumr said that the BJP is of the view that “we all are Indians. There is no difference on the basis of colour. We all are one. Congress should not create differences. We are all together”.

“Khargeji please don’t try to create differences... Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat (One India. Great India),” he emphasised.

However amid pandemonium, the Speaker again adjourned the House for the third time at 12.50 for an hour.

After the lunch break, when the House met again and Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari rose to reply on the debate on the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, Congress and Left members again began shouting and tried to abrupt the proceedings. They later staged a walk out under protest.