Anant Hegde’s remarks on Mahatma: Congress MPs walk out of Lok Sabha

NEW DELHI: Congress MPs walked out of Lok Sabha on Tuesday as the proceedings of the lower house of the Parliament were adjourned following uproar by Opposition members over BJP leader Anant Hegde’s controversial remarks on Mahatma Gandhi.

The House also observed silence as a mark of respect for the departed souls, including Sultan of Oman Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al Said.

Soon after the House condoled the death of former members, protests began.

Mostly members from the Congress, DMK and NCP sought to raise the issue of Hegde’s remarks but Speaker Om Birla did not allow them.

“We, people of Bharatiya Janata Party, are the real bhakts. We are the real followers of Mahatma Gandhi. These people are the followers of ‘nakli’ Gandhi like Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi,” Union Minister Pralhad Joshi hit back at the opposition party.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, however, courted controversy, as he called Hegde as ‘Ye Ravan ke aulad hain’ (son of Ravan), leading to an uproar among the BJP MPs.

Some Congress members displayed placards saying ‘BJP Party Godse Party’ and ‘Mahatma Gandhi, Amar Rahe’.

Amid the uproar, the Speaker adjourned proceedings till noon.

At an event in Bengaluru recently, Hegdge had said that freedom fighters, who did not sacrifice anything, made the country believe that it attained Independence through ‘Upavas Satyagrah’, Gandhi’s preferred mode of agitation, and became Mahapurush (great person).

The former MP had said, “There were two types of freedom fighters, one which believed in Shastra (arms) and another in Shaastra (intellectual motivators).