Uproar in RS over Mamata's Azad remarks

NEW DELHI: A day after Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee stood by her Lalgarh speech on the killing of Maoist leader Azad, Rajya Sabha witnessed unruly scenes. Left parties demanded an explanation from the government on collective responsibility, as she was also the railway minister.

Supported by BJP, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury questioned the appropriateness of a Cabinet minister publicly airing views that were contrary to that of the government.

Ms Banerjee has been maintaining that her comments were in the broader nature on killings of any variety being abominable. Reports had suggested that at the Lalgarh rally on August 9, the Trinamool chief had criticised the killing of the Maoist spokesperson Cherukuri Rajkumar, alias, Azad. She had even suggested that encounter was a staged shootout.

As the Opposition, particularly the Left, went hammer and tongs at Ms Banerjee, the government defended the railway minister. It reiterated that the government had committed to respond after ascertaining the facts from the minister. “We will find out from the honourable minister when we have a chance to personally talk about it and come back to the House because these are all media reports and my friends tell me nothing of this sort happened ... so let us find out what happened,” minister of state for parliamentary affairs Prithviraj Chavan said.

Mr Yechury said that the railway minister’s statement in Lalgarh where she described Azad’s killing as "murder" was an “absolute negation of authority bestowed upon her as a cabinet minister” .

Expressing disappointment at the fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not stay back to hear the intervention, he said: “The prime minister on several occasions has called Maoists the greatest threat to internal security. How can a minister in the Union Cabinet, who has taken oath under the Constitution, go against the head of the Cabinet... is it permissible under the Constitution ?” Mr Yechury’s intervention was continuously interrupted by Trinamool members and Union ministers Dinesh Trivedi and Mukul Roy. The Left found an ally in BJP, which had raised the issue last week. Strongly objecting to Mr Trivedi’s interference, BJP member S S Ahluwalia raised a point of order stating that the minister was a Lok Sabha member and should not disrupt the proceedings in the Rajya Sabha.