A tiny group of MPs staged a protest in the first half of the Lok Sabha session on Wednesday when news broke about the disqualification of wrestler Vinesh Phogat from the Olympics.
Both treasury benches and the main opposition bloc were visibly caught off guard by this group of MPs who were instinctively quick to sense the national sentiment over Phogat’s disqualification.
Chandra Shekhar Azad (Bhim Army), Harendra Singh Mallik (SP), Rajiv Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav (Independent) and a few others started raising slogans, saying “injustice has been done to the nation’s daughter” and “we want the government to speak”. Some female MPs of the Trinamool Congress also joined them.
As the treasury benches, with no senior ministers present, appeared puzzled and tried to ignore the protest, the protestors entered the Well of the House and started sloganeering. They started pleading with leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi and other Congress MPs to join them and raise the issue. The Congress MPs looked puzzled and after Gandhi’s quick discussion with some of his colleagues, strangely they chose to remain aloof even as some party members from Haryana seemed keen to join the protest.
Meanwhile, minister of state for parliamentary affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal said the sports minister would make a statement in the afternoon. Then the presiding officer called Rahul Gandhi’s name and the protesters including Azad moved back from the Well, signalling Gandhi will raise their issue. But the Congress leader, instead, limited himself to his scheduled statement on the Wayanad issue.
Meanwhile, outside Parliament, many opposition MPs tried to catch up by registering before the media their concern for Phogat. Later, Gandhi also tweeted his concern for her.
