Former deputy chief minister of Bihar and RJD leader, Tejashwi Yadav on Monday took Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to task for allegedly misleading people on the Indian constitution.
Reacting to Mahajan’s reported comments that Dr BR Ambedkar had advocated for the reservation only for 10 years, Tejashwi said, “Madam Speaker, the 10 years you’re discussing was about the time limit for the reservation in legislature. It was not about the reservation in government jobs. People occupying constitutional posts mustn’t deliberately mislead people. Nobody has guts to touch this (tinker with reservation policy).”
A website had quoted Mahajan as saying that the architect of the Indian constitution had spoken about the need for the reservation only for the 10 years. She was quoted as saying, “He (Ambedkar) had envisaged an egalitarian society in 10 years. But it could not be achieved. We extend this provision by 10 years after each decade.”
Mahajan’s reported comments on reservation earned her plenty of flak on social media. One user said, “She is not the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, she’s the Speaker of the BJP.” “Madam is causing confusion among people. This could lead to riots,” commented another user.
मैडम स्पीकर, जिस 10 वर्ष समयसीमा की आप चर्चा कर रही है वह विधायिका में आरक्षण की समय सीमा थी, सरकारी सेवाओं में आरक्षण की नहीं।
संवैधानिक पद पर बैठे किसी व्यक्ति को जानबूझकर देश को गुमराह नहीं करना चाहिए। किसी में हिम्मत नहीं जो इसे छू दें। https://t.co/BybApahEqd
— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) October 1, 2018
Mahajan has often found herself in a spot of bother for her perceived biased behaviour even after occupying a politically neutral post of the Lok Sabha Speaker.
In July this year, Mahajan had faced flak from opposition MPs for her ‘brazen biases’ during the speech of Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who was repeatedly heckled. But Mahajan had made no significant attempts to stop the heckling.
Later on, she had admonished the Congress President for hugging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and called it a natak (drama) adding that by hugging the prime minister the Rahul Gandhi had breached the House’s established decorum.
Midway through Rahul’s speech, Mahajan had adjourned the House. Many felt that it was an inappropriate decision given that he was in the midst of launching a fierce attack against the BJP while embarrassing the prime minister and his party on the Rafale scam and surprise jump in the wealth of BJP President Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah.
Janta Ka Reporter had exclusively exposed the Rafale scam in its three part series. You can read them here (Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3).