Just 10 MPs pay homage to Parliament attack martyrs

NEW DELHI: Just two days after displaying a rare unity in the fight against terrorism, barely ten MPs turned up on Saturday morning at a function here to pay homage to martyrs who saved Parliament from terrorist attack seven years ago.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani, his counterpart in the Upper House Jaswant Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi paid floral tributes at the plaque put up on the spot of the encounter with the terrorists on December 13, 2001.(Watch)
Rajya Sabha members S S Ahluwalia (BJP), Manohar Joshi (Shiv Sena), D Raja (CPI), P J Kurien and Karan Singh (both Congress) were among the first to offer floral tributes.
Union Minister P K Bansal and former Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil were also present.
Both Houses of Parliament had on Friday paid tributes to the martyrs and recalled the supreme sacrifice by the security personnel in foiling the attempt of the terrorists.
The two Houses had on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution to fight terrorism.
Commenting on the attendance of MPs, Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari said "such a low turnout is not only disappointing but completely inexcusable".
However, BJP MP Prakash Javdekar, who was in Kolkata, said most of the MPs were in their constituencies where they would pay homage to the martyrs. "You cannot expect everybody (in Delhi) on a Saturday or Sunday. MPs have to go to their constituencies."
He said the matter should not be trivialised.