Congress disrupts Rajya Sabha over Piyush Goyal's comment

New Delhi, December 3: The Congress on Thursday disrupted the Rajya Sabha over union minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that party leader Kumari Selja has “manufactured discrimition” over her remark that she was asked about her caste at a temple in Gujrat. The disruption continued despite the minister offering his regrets on the issue. The upper house also witnessed several adjournments in the pre-lunch session before the house agreed to discuss a calling attention motion on the situation in Nepal and the state of India-Nepal ties by Jata Dal-United leader Pawan Kumar Verma.

“In view of the chair’s decision to review the record... I regret the comments made with reference to my distinguished colleague Kumari Selja,” Goyal said. However, the minister’s regret could not satisfy the Congress members and they trooped into the well raising slogans against the treasury bench forcing the deputy chairman to adjourn the house till 2.00 p.m. Chairman Hamid Ansari succeeded to end the stalmate after a series of meetings in his chamber among the leaders of several parties.

Soon after the house reassembled at 2.00 p.m. Fince Minister and the Leader of the House Arun Jaitley said: “I thank the chairman and deputy chairman for finding a solution to the present impasse.” “The issue raised by me doesn’t survive and Goyal has already expressed his regret over his remarks against Selja.” After continuous adjournments, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah idu pleaded with the chairman to go through the records before taking appropriate action.

Earlier in the day, the upper house witnessed four adjournments in the pre-lunch session. Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien adjourned the house for 20 minutes at 12.17 p.m. after the leaders of the house could not reach a consensus over the issue. Chairman Hamid Ansari first convened a meeting of the leaders before adjourning the house for 15 minutes at 12.07 p.m. to end the stalemate after the treasury bench on Wednesday sought to contradict Selja’s claim that she faced caste discrimition at the temple when she visited it as a union minister. The Rajya Sabha was first adjourned till 11.44 a.m. (IANS)