Discuss conduct of Goa, Manipur Guvs: Kurien

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 30

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien today asked Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to convey to Leader of the House Arun Jaitley the sense of the House that a substantive motion on conduct of Governors of Goa and Manipur be taken up for discussion as early as possible.

Kurien said the substantive motion has been admitted by the Chairman. “I have directed Parliamentary Affairs Minister to convey to the Leader of the House to take up discussion on this subject as early as possible.”

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said the Constitution had been “violated” by the conduct of two Governors in not inviting the party which secured the maximum number of seats in the recent Assembly elections in the two states.

Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the substantive motion was given as the Deputy Chairman had stated that the Governors’ conduct could not be discussed in Zero Hour. But the session was coming to an end with hardly half a dozen sittings left and the urgency of the subject was already lost due to the delay, he added.

Naqvi sought to counter him, saying the Congress did not stake claim to form the government and was now crying foul. Rajeev Shukla of the Congress reminded him that the BJP did not stake claim to form government in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand for eight days.

This and a Rajasthan minister questioning the integrity of a student who was allegedly gang-raped resulted in brief adjournment of the House. Kahkashan Parveen of the JD-U raised the issue of state Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria’s reported remark that it was unlikely that eight men gangraped the girl and she did not complain. Parveen was supported by women Congress members including Viplove Thakur, who displayed what appeared were newspaper reports of the minister’s remarks.