Sushma Swaraj’s Statement On Pak Visit Drowned Out By Opposition Protests: 10 Developments

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Dec 14, 2015:  External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj spoke through continuous opposition protests on Monday morning, barely heard above the din as she made a statement in the Rajya Sabha on her visit last week to Pakistan.

Ms Swaraj told the Upper House that India and Pakistan would engage in a "comprehensive" dialogue on all issues including peace, security and Jammu and Kashmir and added that "continued estrangement of the two countries was a hurdle to realisation of peace and prosperity in the region."
   
She also said "India hopes new dialogue with Pakistan will mark a new
   
beginning for peace and development in the region." She is expected to make a statement in the Lok Sabha at 2 pm today.
   
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned repeatedly amid the noisy slogan shouting by the opposition who were protesting against an incident in Punjab’s Fazilka district where limbs of two men were chopped off on Saturday at a farmhouse allegedly owned by a leader of the ruling Akali Dal.
   
The Rajya Sabha has barely functioned in the last few days with the opposition Congress protesting and forcing multiple adjournments alleging "political vendetta" after its two top leaders, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi were summoned by court in the National Herald case.
   
They have also disrupted the Lok Sabha. A section of Congress leaders are reportedly not in favour of continuously disrupting legislative work and there has been some talk of the opposition party scaling down its protests.
   

Sources said the party is still divided over allowing work in Parliament, which has eight days of the winter session left, with many bills, including the mega reform Goods and Services Tax Bill pending.
   
At the Gandhi statue outside Parliament, a combative Rahul Gandhi led a protest against what it calls poor treatment by the Centre of its chief ministers after Kerala’s Oommen Chandy complained that he has been kept away from a function in his state where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be present today.
   
Mr Gandhi accused the PM of insulting the people of the state. "PM has insulted the people of Kerala by stopping the Chief Minister from attending the function. This is not acceptable to us," the Congress Vice-president said. He also alleged that he had been stopped from entering a temple in Congress-ruled Assam by "RSS people" during his visit to the state last week.
   
Also in Parliament, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) protested against the demolition of homes in a Delhi slum cluster by the railway police in an anti-encroachment drive that allegedly left a six-month-old girl dead and hundreds homeless. Mr Gandhi visited the slum in Shakur Basti today. Speaking in Rajya Sabha, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu defended the demolition and said the girl died much before the demolition began.
   
Other opposition parties like the Janata Dal (United) and the Trinamool Congress joined AAP in protests at the Gandhi statue outside Parliament.  While AAP has moved an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha, seeking that regular work of the house be set aside to discuss the Shakur Basti demolition, the JD(U) and Trinamool have moved similar motions in the Rajya Sabha.

 

Courtesy: NDTV