Garlanding: Sinha faces Opposition ire in Lok Sabha

Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Thursday had to face the ire of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha for recently garlanding eight people, who were convicted of lynching a man last year.

The MPs of the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) came to the well of the Lok Sabha and started raising slogans as soon as Civil Aviation Minister rose to reply to a question about upgrading the airports.

Even as Sinha replied to the question and the supplementary queries asked by the members, the Opposition MPs continued to protest from the well of the House.

"He is a minister here. Please don't pull out new tricks to disturb the House," Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said as she tried to persuade the agitated MPs to return to their seats and listen to the reply by Sinha.

The Opposition MPs, however, continued to protest and returned to their seats only after Sinha finished replying to the question and the supplementary queries.

Sinha, an MP of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, triggered a controversy on July 6, as he garlanded eight people, who were convicted of killing local coal trader Alimuddin Ansari about a year ago. Ansari was lynched by a group of cow-vigilantes who suspected that he was carrying beef in his vehicle. A fast-track court convicted 11 people in connection with the lynching of Ansari. They were of late granted bail by the High Court of Jharkhand. Eight of them came to meet Union Minister for Civil Aviation at his residence in Hazaribagh on July 6. The Minister not only garlanded the lynching convicts but also posed for photographs with them.

The Congress and other Opposition parties have since been criticising him.