Will not allow Parliament to function if discussion not held on SIR: Samajwadi Party
New Delhi (PTI): The Samajwadi Party on Sunday said it would not allow Parliament to function if a discussion on the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls is not held during the Winter Session.
After an all-party meeting convened by the government a day before the Winter Session of Parliament, SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav asserted that the government cannot shy away from discussing SIR saying it is being conducted by the Election Commission.
"We will not allow the House to function if discussion is not held on SIR," he said.
"The Samajwadi Party has raised the issue of SIR because on a large scale, I have seen irregularities. First, we used to hear but now we are seeing that people's votes are being cut. In Bihar, there have been malpractices. We have demanded a discussion on it (SIR). They cannot shy away from it by citing the Election Commission," Yadav said.
The EC has been created by the government and the creator is bigger than the created, he said.
"Why can't discussion be done when wrongdoing is being committed. If the prime minister's (Narendra Modi) name is cut then will a discussion not take place?" Yadav said.
"I have gone to many places, and I am still travelling. I have been a voter since 1967. In the Etawah district, all of us have been put under Category C. Everyone in the entire district has been placed in Category C. From our district, there are seven MPs from both Houses of Parliament and three MLAs, and every single one of them has been placed in Category C," Yadav said.
The customary meeting was convened to ensure a smooth session which is slated to see introduction of several new bills.
The Winter session commences on Monday and will conclude on December 19.
There will be a total of 15 sittings in the session which has been dubbed as a "brief session" by the opposition. Usually, Parliament sessions have 20 sittings.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
