After Budget, Opposition Preps To Target Smriti Irani Again

New Delhi: Union Budget presented, opposition parties have prepped to target Education Minister Smriti Irani in both Houses of Parliament over her statements on the death of Hyderabad Central University student Rohith Vemula and the JNU controversy.

Alleging that she misled Parliament, two Congress leaders moved privilege motion against the minister in the Lok Sabha this morning. Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party or the BSP moved the motion in the Rajya Sabha.

Ms Irani's fiery replies to debates on the campus crises in the country had won her much praise from her party with Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulating her on Twitter.

But the mother of Rohith, a Dalit research scholar who committed suicide on January 17 days after he was banned from common areas on the campus, has said the minister's claim that "nobody allowed a doctor near his body" was a set of "absolute lies".

Rohith's supporters and opposition parties allege that he was a victim of caste discrimination. His mother met Congress President Sonia Gandhi, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and JD(U) leader KC Tyagi on Saturday.

The privilege motion against Ms Irani in the Lok Sabha is not a big worry for the government, which has a comfortable majority in the Lower House to defeat it, though the opposition is expected to follow that up by disrupting the House.

The real worry is in the Rajya Sabha, where the government is in a minority. Mayawati, whose Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP draws big support from Dalit voters, is leading the charge against the government here and a united opposition has the numbers for making the House accept the motion.

"Rohith's mother said that the minister lied. Still the PM has not acted against her," said Satish Mishra of the BSP.

But sources in the BJP insist that Ms Irani had not lied. She is believed to have cited a police report submitted in court, which inexplicably did not mention the visit by a doctor who declared Rohith dead after examining him.

The Left parties want to move privilege motion against Ms Irani for reading out controversial references to Goddess Durga from a pamphlet allegedly distributed at JNU. Ms Irani had said the pamphlet showed the "depraved mentality" of a section of JNU students.