BSP leader Mayawati threatens to resign from RS

New Delhi, July 18

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati threatened to quit Rajya Sabha on Tuesday to protest not being allowed to speak, as she took on Uttar Pradesh state government under Chief Minister Adityanath over atrocities against Dalits.

Speaking about a recent incident of caste violence in Shabbirpur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district, Mayawati said amid protests from Treasury Benches: “If you don’t allow me to speak I will resign from the Rajya Sabha. If I am not allowed to speak I have no right to speak about my community in the House. ‘lanathai mujhpe’”.

Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi asked her to apologise for insulting the House.
”The BJP got the janadesh — people’s mandate in the state,” he said, referring to the BJP’s recent resounding victory in the state, but adding that the government was ready for any discussion.

Responding to the minister, Opposition Leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that people’s mandate was “not to massacre minorities”.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury accused the central government of not allowing the Opposition to speak about “atrocities against Dalits and farmer suicides”.

As the Opposition quickly joined ranks to protest against the central government, the House was adjourned until noon.

Speaking to the media outside the House, she said she was not speaking in the Zero Hour but as part of the adjournment notice she had submitted.

“This is not the first time I have come to the Rajya Sabha. I have also been part of the Lok Sabha. I am not afraid of contesting elections. But if I am not allowed to speak in the House about the people who made me reach this position, i have no moral right to remain in the Rajya Sabha, ” she said, accusing the BJP of “open discrimination charge”.

She also called NDA’s decision to nominate a Dalit president “dramatics”.
Meanwhile, Opposition forced an adjournment in the Lok Sabha soon after it assembled for Zero Hour as they protested what they called the central government’s anti-farmer policies.
Protests by a united Opposition against farmer suicides continued even after they reassembled, forcing the House to adjourn until Wednesday.