Majority suffering the "dictatorship of the few": Speaker Sumitra Mahajan

NEW DELHI: In a sharp rebuke to Congress over frequent disruptions in Lok Sabha, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the majority was having to suffer the "dictatorship of the few". Her remarks came after an hour-long protest by Congress on Dalit killings in Punjab that led to a verbal duel between Jyotiraditya Scindia and ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Speaking to the 300 members from various political parties, Mahajan said, "Main aapka dard samajh rahi hoon.Ek prakar ki tanashahi aapko sahni pad rahi hai (I understand your pain. You are facing the dictatorship of a few)."

Congress members had disrupted Question Hour, shouting slogans against the Punjab government and de manding it be sacked. With the Speaker disallowing a state subject to be raised, Congress, Trinamool and RJD members staged a walkout.

Scindia cited crime figures to allege that an atrocity against Dalits takes place every 18 minutes in Punjab. He then referred to the chopping of limbs of two Dalit youths in Punjab recently and another incident in which a woman was allegedly run over by a which a woman was allegedly run over by a bus whose owner, he alleged, was close to the Badal family. Parliamentary affairs minister Naidu accused Congress of misusing Par liament to "defame" the state dispensations.

Reacting strongly to the allegations, Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, daughter-inlaw of Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal, accused Congress of trying to destabilise the state government and stall development by "raking up all kinds of issues in Parliament".She alleged that Congress leaders were supporting demand for Khalistan.

Kaur accused Congress of politicising the issue of a "gang war", and said several culprits had been arrested. Hitting back at Congress, she cited figures of "atrocities" against Dalits when Congress was in power.