New Delhi, July 23 (Inditop.com) The Lok Sabha was adjourned three times and the Rajya Sabha once after MPs of opposition parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), kicked up a storm Thursday over the government’s reported move to downgrade security of their leaders.
Angry BSP members took up the issue as soon as the lower house met at 11 a.m. and rushed towards Speaker Meira Kumar’s podium shouting slogans against the government after reports that the Z-plus security cover being given to their party chief, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, may be downgraded.
The speaker’s repeated requests to them to raise the matter during zero hour would not pacify the members, forcing her to adjourn the house for half-an-hour.
As the house re-assembled at 11.30 a.m., the BSP members maintained that the government had decided to scale down the security of Mayawati.
“The government is planning to scale down the security provided to Mayawati and Home Minister P. Chidambram should reply soon,” BSP leader Dara Singh Chauhan told the Lok Sabha.
In a move to calm down the agitated BSP members, Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee said: “I checked up the position on the issue with the home minister and he has assured me that he has not received the report of review committee so far.”
“It is a periodic exercise to review security. The review committee report has not reached him and the government will take a decision after taking (into account) the concerns of the members of the house and the persons concerned,” said Mukherjee.
Not happy with Mukherjee’s reply, the BSP MPs continued their protest.
BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said: “The name of party leader Murli Manhohar Joshi who led ‘ekta yatra’ against terrorism to Kashmir also figured in the list of persons whose security will be downscaled.”
Soon after Swaraj’s brief speech, BJP MPs joined the chorus, forcing the speaker to adjourn the house till noon.
When it reconvened, the house was adjourned for a third time, till 2 p.m., following slogan shouting.
The home ministry is currently reviewing the security provided to VVIPs and has suggested that the security status of senior politicians like Mayawati, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, and BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi be downgraded.
Personnel of the elite National Security Guard (NSG) are presently guarding these politicians.
Home ministry officials have had three meetings so far to examine the security cover being given to 395 VIPs in the capital. Security cover may be either whittled down or removed for some of them. The final decision has to be taken by the home minister.
The matter also figured Wednesday in the Lok Sabha when Lalu Prasad and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav voiced their protest against the government’s move.
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the same reason soon after it began the day’s proceedings.
The chairman did not allow any further disruption as he told the house that the home minister had already said the government would keep the concerns of Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad and Murli Manohar Joshi in mind.
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