Proceedings in Rajya Sabha were disrupted.
Credit: PTI
New Delhi: The renaming of all Raj Bhavans, the residences of Governors, to Lok Bhavans triggered a heated exchange in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday after Trinamool Congress MP Dola Sen asked how could the government talk about people when it was not clearing huge amount of the dues.
During Zero Hour, Sen was called to speak on 'concern over renaming of Raj Bhavan as Lok Bhavan'.
She referred to the Ministry of Home Affairs' directive on November 25 to rename all Raj Bhavans in the country as Lok Bhavans and said, "first of all, we would like to say that neither the Parliament, Assembly, nor the Cabinet is aware of this... They are not even discussing it with you, sir."
Then she moved on to refer to the alleged deprivation of funds to West Bengal on MNREGA and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan among others and asked "so which Lok (people) Bhavan story are you telling us after neglecting people?"
Leader of the House J P Nadda objected to the deviation, saying, "You (Chairman) permitted her to speak during Zero Hour about the change of name from Raj Bhavan to Lok Bhavan. She spoke about MGNREGA and other issues. I would like to be very clear that because it does not relate to the subject, it should be deleted and it should not be brought on record and only issues related to Lok Bhavan should be admitted."
Chairman C P Radhakrishnan said, "anything deviated from the subject will not go on record".
Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge came to Sen's defence and said, "she has not spoken any unparliamentary word. Everything is connected with the subject...The Leader of the House cannot interfere and say whatever is said is unparliamentary and delete it. The Leader (of the House) is bulldozing. You don't want to run according to parliamentary democracy."
Nadda countered Kharge and said he "never bulldozed" and that he was only requesting that matters related to the subject remain on record.
Trinamool Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O'Brien said the name of Raj Bhavans is changed to Lok Bhavans and 'Lok' means 'people'. He said Sen has only given facts regarding Bengal while explaining the subject on which she was talking.