New Delhi: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Monday questioned President Droupadi Murmu’s “silence” on the Manipur conflict, the recent communal flare-up in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal, and sexual violence against women in Odisha over the last six months, urging her to speak up on these issues just as she did in the RG Kar Medical College rape and murder case.
Participating in a discussion on the ‘Glorious journey of 75 years of the Constitution of India’ in the Rajya Sabha, BJD MP Sulata Deo also took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remarks in the Lok Sabha on the BJP steering clear of horse trading of MPs despite losing its governments in 1996 and 1998 under Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
After getting dislodged by the BJP from power in Odisha after five terms, the BJD has been trying to shed its image of being an informal ally of the NDA. The Naveen Patnaik-led party maintained throughout the first two terms of the Modi government that it was “politically equidistant” from the BJP and the Congress.
However, more often than not, it came to the aid of the BJP, which lacked a majority in the Rajya Sabha, in pushing through crucial legislations in Parliament, even as Modi went soft on Patnaik at the state-level.
But the shift in the BJD’s stance has been evident since 4 June, when the Odisha assembly poll results were declared along with the Lok Sabha verdict. The party had thus far desisted from attacking President Murmu, who hails from Odisha, though. That code of Omerta was broken as Deo spoke in the Upper House Monday.
“The President is a daughter of Odisha. She can express her anguish on the RG Kar rape case. But why is she silent on Manipur which is on fire over the last one-and-a-half years? Why is she silent on Sambhal? There have been 1,250 rapes in Odisha in the last six months. Where is the President? When will she break her silence? Is this what our Constitution teaches us?” Deo said.
Deo, who is a spokesperson of the BJD too, also quoted from Modi’s Lok Sabha speech, made on 14 December, in her attempt to highlight the BJP’s “duplicity”. The PM in his speech had said that, had the BJP and Vajpayee wanted, they could have prevented the government from collapsing in 1996 and 1998.
“Voting took place, horse trading could have been resorted to then as well, goods were traded in the market even then (bazaar mai maal tab bhi bikta tha), but committed to the spirit of the Constitution, Vajpayee chose to lose by one vote,” the PM had said in his speech Sunday.
Condemning Modi’s remarks, Deo said Modi it was highly inappropriate to refer to parliamentarians as “maal” (goods).
“The MPs are being compared with goods today. I have been pained by his remarks. He (Modi) spoke about values, traditions, and ethics. Where do these things go when people resigning from other parties are inducted by the BJP?” Deo said.
Two Rajya Sabha MPs—Mamata Mohanta and Sujeet Kumar—who entered the House as representatives of the BJD, switched over to the BJP after June. Kumar, who was in the House when Deo spoke, objected to her remarks, asking her to substantiate her allegations.
Edited by Gitanjali Das
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