Presenting the Opposition’s side of the debate on lynchings and associated atrocities arising out of mob violence in the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge accused the government of siding with cow vigilantes and encouraging them.
In a last minute decision, the government on Monday extended the deadline for filing income tax returns (ITRs) till 5 August, a top official said today.
A few days after a 55-year-old Pehlu Khan lost his life in Alwar after being brutally beaten by cow vigilantes who suspected him of smuggling cows to Haryana from Jaipur, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that “such an incident did not happen”. After Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry, in Rajya Sabha, raised the issue of growing violence due to cow vigilantism and wrongly attacking the men who turned out to be dairy farm workers, Naqvi said:
This is a sensitive issue. A message should not go that we are supporting cow slaughter! Such an incident did not happen on the ground. The state govt has denied the report. But let this House not send a message that it supports cow slaughter.
The Opposition in the Lok Sabha on Monday sought stringent action against BJP leader Tarun Vijay for his purported racial remarks, even as the government assured there would be no discrimination based on caste or colour. Seeking to soothe the frayed nerves, senior Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Ananth Kumar said the individual has already apologised and the country is secular. With noisy protests by Opposition members who also demanded lodging of an FIR against him on the issue, the House proceedings were adjourned thrice -- once during the Question Hour and twice during the Zero Hour. Attacking the ruling party over the remarks, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge wondered whether the people from South India were not Indian citizens. "I want to know whether we are Indians or not? Are we not citizens of India?" Kharge questioned during the Zero Hour.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, newly elected Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took a dig at Congress Vice President and SP leader Akhilesh Yadav. Addressing Congress Leader Mallikarjun Kharge, the priest-politician noted that “he is a year junior to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and a year senior to Akhilesh Yadav.” He then, almost in a tone of a notoriety, suggested that his ‘in-between’ age could have led to the alliance’s downfall. In response to Yogi, Kharge said hat the UP CM “must act in a manner that befits a CM.”
