Congress members in the Rajasthan Assembly today walked out of the House twice, demanding action against two BJP MLAs for their alleged derogatory remarks against Rahul Gandhi and an apology from Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in this regard.
As soon as the House assembled, Leader of Opposition Rameshwar Dudi raised the demand for action against BJP MLAs Kailash Choudhary and Gyan Dev Ahuja.
When there was no response from Speaker Kailash Meghwal, the Congress members trooped into the Well of the House. Ten minutes later, they boycotted the Question Hour and walked out of the House.
Dudi was, however, allowed to speak during the Zero Hour. He said his party was hurt over the comments from the BJP MLAs and demanded that an FIR be registered against them and the Chief Minister tender an apology.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajendra Rathore intervened, saying Congress should have moved a notice before raising their demands.
Amid uproar, Deputy Chief Whip of the government in the assembly Madan Rathore accused Dudi of following double standards, saying the latter had embraced Ahuja outside the House and congratulated him for his statement.
"You embraced our MLA outside the House and congratulated him for his statement and now you are opposing him," Madan said.
Ahuja joined in and backed Madan's claim. This angered Congress members, including party's deputy whip Govind Singh Dotasara.
As the pandemonium continued, senior Congress legislator Pradhyuman Singh demanded that Rajendra and Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria make clear whether the government supports such derogatory remarks from its MLAs.
Rajendra said that since the remarks were made outside the assembly and two complaints were pending in court against Choudhary, it was not appropriate to hold a discussion on the matter in the House.
After nearly 20 minutes of uproar, the Speaker said he gave enough time to the Opposition but Dudi "crossed the limits".
Alleging their issue was not addressed by the Speaker, the Congress members again staged a walk out from the House.
