Parliament News: BJP, Congress Protest Again On Last Day Of Winter Session: 10 Points

1. Congress MPs – led by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra – are protesting in the parliament complex again over Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s Ambedkar remarks. BJP MPs have also taken out a parallel protest alleging disrespect to the architect of the Constitution. 

2. The government will likely move the ‘One Nation, One Election’ bill today to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee comprising 27 Lok Sabha MPs and 12 Rajya Sabha MPs as it ends the Winter Session on a stormy note.

3. The past few weeks saw frequent disruptions and protests – the latest impasse resulting in a case against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi after the BJP filed a complaint over two of its MPs getting injured during a protest at the Parliament’s Makar Dwar.

4. The Congress—which has also filed a police complaint alleging party chief Mallikarjun Kharge was injured after being pushed by BJP MPs—has termed the case against Mr Gandhi a “badge of honour”. “A case against him for defending Babasaheb’s legacy is a badge of honour,” Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said.

5. BJP MPs Pratap Sarangi and Mukesh Rajput – who are now in hospital – had suffered injuries during parallel protests from the Treasury and Opposition benches outside the parliament.

6. The protests followed Amit Shah’s comments in Rajya Sabha that taking BR Ambedkar’s name had become a “fashion” now – which the opposition deemed as “insulting”. “It has become a fashion to say Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar’. If they had taken God’s name so many times, they would have got a place in heaven,” Mr Shah had said.

7. While Mr Shah has accused the Opposition of distorting facts and using clipped videos, the Congress and Trinamool have moved a privilege motion against him and demanded his resignation. The Congress has also accused the BJP of orchestrating the violence to divert attention from the Ambedkar row. 

8. Mr Shah has refused to step down and said it would not solve Congress’s problems. Backing him, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Congress is using “malicious lies to hide their misdeeds”.

9. Sources said that after yesterday’s chaos, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has issued strict instructions barring protests at any of the Parliament House gates. He has also directed the MPs not to block any of those gates.

10. The Winter Session also saw the Congress finding it difficult to garner support from its allies – Trinamool and Samajwadi Party – over its key agendas. Both parties had called for a functioning parliament, distancing themselves from the Congress over the Adani row as well as the George Soros link claims by the BJP.

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