The Hindu : Uproar over Fernandes remarks on Sonia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 01, 2002

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National

Uproar over Fernandes remarks on Sonia

New Delhi April 30. The Lok Sabha was plunged into turmoil for over an hour tonight during the debate on Gujarat after the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, made a scathing attack on the Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, accusing her of provoking her party members to cause an uproar in the House.

It was trouble from the word go when Mr. Fernandes rose to speak in an already-surcharged House on the Opposition's censure motion. He targeted the Congress for riots in the past and blamed it for all that had gone wrong in the country over the last 50 years.

"The Leader of the Opposition is provoking her members. She is also chewing gum,'' Mr. Fernandes said. "The country has witnessed 15,000 riots and if the Centre and State Governments had acted in time this would not have happened. Stories are being told about the Gujarat violence as if it was happening for the first time. Did it not happen in 1984 on the roads of Delhi?"

He referred to an incident in which a pregnant woman's abdomen was torn apart by rioters and the foetus killed. This provoked Congress members, who said that the Minister was not talking on the relevant topic, causing sharp protests from the treasury benches.

At one point, the Union Minister, Uma Bharati, hit out at Ms. Gandhi saying, "Her behaviour is not in keeping with the office of the Leader of the Opposition. It is very childish behaviour and not in keeping with the traditions of the House. Someone should tell her that not to chew gum in the House.''

Earlier, a gesture by the Congress member, Sunder Lal Tiwari, sent the treasury benches into a rage. In the uproar, the Samata Party member, Prabhunath Singh, made objectionable remarks against Ms. Gandhi and referred to a court case filed against her by the Janata Party leader, Subramaniam Swamy. Agitated Congress members protested his remarks but when the Deputy Leader of the party, Shivraj Patil, rose to speak, the treasury benches created an uproar.

When the Deputy Speaker, P.M. Sayeed, failed to pacify the agitated members, he called a meeting of leaders of several parties and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister in his chamber. A few minutes later, Mr. Sayeed said that whatever had gone on record and was irrelevant and not conducive would be viewed and expunged.

Accusing the Congress of being responsible for unemployment, backwardness and neglect of Muslims, Mr. Fernandes alleged that Congress governments had prevented minorities from getting important positions in the public sector and elsewhere. Terming the secularism advocated by the Congress a "sham", he said that what was happening in Gujarat now had been a common phenomenon for the last 54 years.

Charging the Congress with trying to prevent him from speaking in the House, he said he was determined to thwart such designs and was even ready to stand till morning. Dismissing the charges that there was a delay in Army deployment, he said such a campaign was part of a move to demoralise the forces. Though the forces were not available in Ahmedabad and Vadodara immediately, they were despatched around midnight of February 28 and deployed the next morning, he said.

PTI, UNI

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