Proceedings in parliament predictably got off to an aggressive start on Monday on two key issues - the Delhi Police visiting the official residence of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi to make personal inquiries and on Sharad Yadav's controversial "dark-skinned" women comment last week.
In the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Malikarjun Kharge promptly stood up as Monday's session began with Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in the chair, to demand an official response from both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the issue of why the police found it necessary to visit Rahul Gandhi's residence, which he described as an invasion of the latter's privacy.
Kharge further stated that this was a serious enough issue, as it related not only to Rahul Gandhi, but also to all other Members of Parliament and other important personalities.
In the Rajya Sabha, the issue was raised by Leader of Opposition Gulam Nabi Azad, who called for a suspension of business and demanded a statement on the issue from Home Minister Rajnath Singh immediately.
Azad claimed that the government was attempting not only to curb religious and civil freedoms, but also political freedom, and added that an atmosphere of fear and insecurity was sought to being created.
Janata Dal (United) leader K.C.Tyagi and Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal also spoke on the issue.
Earlier, Sharad Yadav took umbrage over politicians criticizing him for his "dark-skinned" women comment, saying that he was well within his rights to speak on the issue. Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani countered and requested that Yadav not speak at all about the colour of the skin of women at all.
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Yadav drew a lot of flak when he allegedly made a remark during the debate on the Insurance Bill in Rajya Sabha on Thursday and said: "The women of south are beautiful, their bodies...their skin ...They aren't made like this here. They know dance".
The senior JD(U) leader also described the proposal to raise foreign investment cap to 49 percent as a reflection of an obsession with fair skin.
"Here people are awed by fair skin. In our matrimonials too we look for gori, gori (fair skin)," he said.
This morning the Congress party again said that conducting a secret surveillance at a VIP's residence was unacceptable, and added that the act was almost similar to espionage.
"If police is conducting a secret surveillance at a VIPs residence, it is unacceptable. We need an answer on this. It's almost similar to espionage," said senior Congress leader P C Chacko.
Another party leader Ashwini Kumar said the Congress would certainly raise the issue in the Parliament with all the strength at their command.
Manish Tewari dubbed the NDA Government a 'colonial government'.
"It's high time that Parliament debated, there must be a legal basis and oversight of our intelligence agencies, to put an end to this," Tewari said.
"The intent and entire exercise is absurd in its entirety, what is going to come out of this profiling of public figures?, he said.
Delhi Police personnel visited Rahul Gandhi's residence last week and also sought details about his height and colour of eyes and hair.
A team, led by Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Jatin Narwal, visited Gandhi's Tughlak Lane residence to enquire about the sequence of events.
The team also checked the pictures of the policemen who had visited Rahul's residence a couple of days ago and enquired about the colour of Congress leader's eyes and hairs.
The Delhi Police on Saturday said it was a routine security enquiry and that there was no malafide intention behind it.