War of words in Lok Sabha

The Lok Sabha on Monday witnessed uproar over lynching of a man in Alwar district of Rajasthan.

The Congress and the BJP MPs had a war of words over killing of Akbar Khan, allegedly by a group of cow-vigilantes.

Karan Singh Yadav, a Congress MP from Alwar, raised the issue in Lok Sabha during Zero Hour. “People, who call themselves 'gau-rakshak' or cow-protectors, killed the innocent man, accusing him of being involved in cattle smuggling,” said Yadav, who was elected from Alwar Lok Sabha constituency in a by-election early this year wresting the seat from the BJP.

Akbar, 28, was beaten to death by a group of local people in Lalawandi village in Alwar on Saturday, as they suspected him to be a cow smuggler.

As soon as Yadav raised the issue in Lok Sabha, several MPs of the ruling BJP rose to counter him. “This is an issue which should be dealt by the State governments,” Nishikant Dubey of the BJP said. The other MPs of the ruling party also challenged Yadav. The MPs of the Congress and other Opposition parties rose in support of Yadav and had a brief war of words with the members on the Treasury Bench.

Yadav also referred to the lynching of Pehlu Khan by cow vigilantes in Alwar in April 2017. He also said that a man was also brutally beaten, while yet another man was killed in the same district in similar manner. He said that the lynching of Akbar Khan on Saturday was the fourth such incident in Alwar.

He also criticised the role of the police in the latest case. “The cops kept him in the police station for four hours. They (the policemen) picked him up from mud (after the incident). He was alive then. They took him to the police station and made him take a shower and change clothes,” said the MP from Alwar.

He, however, could not speak further, as Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House for lunch.

The Congress MPs wanted to raise the issue in the Lok Sabha soon after the House met on Monday. The Speaker however did not allow them and continued with the Question Hour. It was only towards the end of Zero Hour that Yadav could raise the issue.

The MPs on the Treasury and Opposition benches also had a war of words earlier, when Jyotiraditya Scindia of the Congress raised the issue of growing incidents of rape of women, particularly children. He referred to the rape and murder case at Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, apart from other incidents of crimes against women. He said that the BJP leaders, who had then been ministers in J&K, had come out in support of the accused in the rape and murder case in Kathua. He also pointed out that a BJP MLA in Uttar Pradesh was an accused in the rape case in Unnao.

The BJP MPs protested against his remark. The Speaker, too, told Scindia that he should not politicise such issues.

“Don't do politics over everything. I am also woman and that's why I am telling you...,” said Sumitra

Rajesh Ranjan, an MP from Bihar, spoke about the alleged sexual exploitation of girls in a government shelter in Muzaffarpur in Bihar and sought a probe by the Central Bureau Investigation.