What happened in Lok Sabha?
On Monday, 12th of December, 2022, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla warned the members of the parliament against doing any kind of remarks on anyone’s caste or religion. This issue heated up when one of the members of the parliament commented on another member’s caste and also told the speaker not to interrupt.
This warning was given after a Congress MP claimed that Nirmala Sitharaman, the finance minister had made certain remarks on his proficiency in Hindi because he belonged to a lower caste.
Congress MP Anumula Revanth Reddy said that the people of the Lok Sabha have not been elected based on their caste or religion. “Anyone here should never use such words in the House. Otherwise, I will have to act against such a member”, the Speaker warned.
Om Birla asked Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress leader in the house to make the members of the party understand that they should never make such comments about the speaker.
“You are Leader of the House. Make members understand that they should never comment on the Speaker in the future saying that you (Speaker) cannot interrupt. Did you understand what I said?”, Birla said.
This issue aroused when Reddy started asking a question about the depreciation of the Indian rupee against the dollar. He referred to an earlier remark which was given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his tenure as the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
When the Lok Sabha speaker objected to his comment and tried to direct him to ask questions only, Reddy said, “Sir, you cannot interrupt.”
Birla warned Mr. Reddy against making such disrespectful comments against the Lok Sabha Speaker. After this, he allowed Reddy to ask his question.
Pointing out Reddy’s question, the finance minister said that she will also give her reply to the question asked by the Congress member in “weak Hindi”.
She further added that the Congress member should have also referred to the economic indicators of that time, while he was referring to PM Modi’s remarks on the value of the rupee against the dollar in the past.
The finance minister said, “Economy was certainly in the ICU then. India was kept in fragile five.” She also claimed that India is the fastest-growing economy today instead of the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Nirmala also said that this is a matter of pride but they are making fun of it and it’s sad that they talk about such things out of jealousy when our economy is doing well.
