Lok Sabha adjourned over Anurag Thakur’s comment on Nehru

The Lok Sabha faced its first adjournment in this monsoon session over Union minister’s comments on the Nehru-Gandhi family and a Congress leader calling him a “two-bit chhokra” (boy).

It may be noted that this parliament session has been truncated to just 18 days, and is held amid a lot of restrictions, in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

In the commotion that followed Union minister Anurag Thakur’s comment, opposition members also accused the Speaker of the House of acting in favour of the government.

The problem started when Thakur spoke in favour of the PM-CARES fund, which has been under scrutiny of the opposition leaders, who say, the fund “lacks transparency”.

“From the high court to the Supreme Court, every court has validated the PM-CARES fund. Little children have contributed to it from their piggy banks. Nehru set up a fund that has not been registered to date. You (Congress) only made a trust for the benefit of the Gandhi family. You made Sonia Gandhi its chairman. It should be investigated,” said Anurag Thakur.

Congress members were on their feet the moment Thakur mentioned Nehru. Other party members joined them too.

“Who is this boy from Himachal,” Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury lashed out at Mr Thakur. “How did Nehru come into this debate? Did we take (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi’s name? This two-bit chhokra…”

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The Congress sought an apology from Thakur and staged a walkout while removing their protective masks.

Speaker Om Birla asked opposition members to keep their masks on, saying: “If anyone plays with safety then they will be named and thrown out of the house.” He also warned the members against standing up and speaking, saying that then they would be suspended from the House.

Trinamool Congress member Kalyan Banerjee charged the Speaker of bias towards BJP. “If you want, then throw us out. We will not let this go on. We will not allow this,” said Banerjee.

The Speaker was forced to adjourn the Lok Sabha. Birla later called an informal meeting of floor leaders to resolve the chaos.