Uproar in Rajasthan assembly over rival MLAs greeting each other

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan assembly witnessed a new low on Tuesday when the ruling party's deputy whip Madan Rathod targeted leader of opposition Rameshwar Dudi for greeting BJP MLA Gyan Dev Ahuja on the opening day of the budget session.

Rathod accused Dudi of playing "double standards" and claimed that the leader of opposition, who was insisting on action against Ahuja for making derogatory remarks against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, had actually hugged the BJP MLA outside the House on February 29 and praised him for making those statements.

Dudi refuted the charge and counter-claimed that Ahuja, in fact, apologised for the remarks. Ex-CM Ashok Gehlot condemned the deputy whip's act.

Ahuja supported Rathod in the House, but later told reporters that the deputy whip's act belittled the healthy tradition of political leaders greeting each other outside the House. Ahuja went on to state that Gehlot was right in condemning Rathod's act.

On being asked if Dudi really praised him for the remarks against Rahul, the BJP MLA replied, "Bedroom ki baateyn bedroom mein hi rehni chahiye (bedroom talks should remain in bedroom)."

Former CM Gehlot told media, "Narendra Modi ji once hugged me in public. So what should have I done? Pushed him aside?" He added, "The ruling party and its deputy whip used mean tactics in the House to dilute a serious issue. BJP MLAs are provoking people to kill Congress vice-president."

Earlier, the opposition Congress twice staged walkouts demanding an apology from chief minister Vasundhara Raje and action against BJP MLAs Ahuja and Kailash Chaudhary, who called Rahul Gandhi a traitor and publicly stated that he should be hanged and shot dead for visiting Jawaharlal Nehru University where anti-India slogans were raised recently.

Led by leader of opposition Dudi, the Congress legislators first disrupted the question hour and staged a walkout. They again walked out during the zero hour following deputy whip Rathod's allegations and the ruling party's stand that the remarks were made outside the house, so cannot be debated in the assembly. There was chaos and heated arguments took place between members of the treasury and the opposition benches.

Parliamentary affairs minister Rajendra Rathore, while opposing the Congress demand, argued in the House that during the 2012 elections Congress president Sonia Gandhi called the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi a 'Maut ke Saudagar' (merchant of death). "But, as per the rules, the House cannot debate on remarks made outside the House," Rathore told Speaker Kailash Meghwal.

Dudi countered Rathore by claiming that Ahuja repeated his statements in the House during the Governor's address on February 29. Congress's nine-time MLA Pradhyumn Singh intervened and said, "Two most senior cabinet ministers Gulab Chand Kataria and Rajendra Rathore, who are in the House, should clarify if they approve of whatever the two BJP MLAs said. If they approve, people will know that this government supports such behaviour. If they don't approve, why cannot they show magnanimity and apologise for the duo's conduct?" Rathore said cases against Chaudhary were pending before the courts, so the rules did not allow for comments in the House.