New Delhi:
The opposition on Thursday forced the Rajya Sabha to adjourn in the middle of Education Minister Smriti Irani's reply to a fiery debate on Hyderabad student Rohith Vemula's suicide and the arrest of JNU students for sedition. The opposition reacted sharply to the minister reading out from a pamphlet she said was circulated by students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University or JNU.
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Quoting from William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Ms Irani said, 'Fair Is Foul, Foul Is Fair," accusing the opposition of turning facts around in the debate. Ms Irani and the opposition engaged in a war of words when neither yielded to the requests of the Chair.
Raising the JNU issue, the minister referred to "Mahishasur Martyrdom Day" which was reportedly observed in the campus, reading out from a pamphlet which had derogatory references to a deity.
"This has nothing to do with this house. It sets a dangerous precedent," Congress leader Anand Sharma said as opposition members objected to Ms Irani reading out from the document.
Earlier, Arun Jaitley, the leader of the house in the Rajya Sabha, questioned the opposition for supporting JNU students charged with sedition over an event on February 9 in support of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, during which anti-India slogans were raised.
"Hate speech is not freedom of expression," Mr Jaitley said, adding, "You must realise that this is not the case of some course being tinkered with. Slogans against integrity and sovereignty of India were being raised."
Earlier, CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury began the debate and accused the Modi government of "partisan intervention" in the Jawaharlal Nehru University or JNU row.
"In the name of that (nationalism) to penalise the university as a whole. That I think is unfortunate," Mr Yechury said, and added, "You don't have to teach us patriotism," attacking Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Education Minister Smriti Irani for their speeches in a similar debate in the Lok Sabha yesterday.
Rajnath Singh had ended the Lok Sabha debate on Wednesday by assuring the house that, "No innocent student will be harassed." He also said, "If slapping of sedition charge was right, the court will uphold it, if it was wrong, the court will quash it. But let the court take a view on it."
Choking with emotion, Ms Irani had delivered what many saw as the speech of the day. A combative Ms Irani attacked the opposition which has targeted her over Mr Vemula's suicide, alleging her ministry pressured the university to punish the Dalit scholar days before he killed himself. "Don't turn education a political battleground. Don't use our children as vote banks," she said.
The debate was to have begun in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday afternoon, but the upper house was adjourned for the day as BSP lawmakers shouted slogans, trooped into the well of the House and forced repeated adjournments, attacking Ms Irani and the Modi government over Mr Vemula's suicide.
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