MPs clash in Lok Sabha over death threat to CM Pinarayi Vijayan

New Delhi: Members of the CPI-M and the BJP Thursday indulged in heated exchanges in the Lok Sabha over the alleged death threat issued to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan by an RSS member who was later sacked from the outfit.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, CPI(M) member P Karunakaran said an RSS functionary from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh had announced a hefty reward for anyone who would come forward to kill the Kerala Chief Minister.

“Is this a government policy to attack chief ministers of other parties,” Karunakaran asked, provoking noisy protests by BJP members. The CPI(M) leader was joined by other opposition members in his attack against the government and to vociferously counter the BJP members.

Parvesh Varma, BJP member from Delhi, alleged that RSS and BJP members were being attacked in Kerala and the Left was resorting to violence in this ideological fight.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar also got up and said something which could not be heard in the din. Raising another issue, Dharamvira Gandhi (AAP) welcomed the government’s move to cap the prices of stents for heart surgeries and said similar caps should be imposed on diagnostic tests also.

TMC’s Protima Mondal demanded that the Human Resources Development Ministry take steps to provide vending machines for sanitary napkins for adolescent girls in co-ed schools.

Referring to an incident in Rohtak in Haryana where two youth were arrested on charges of eve-teasing but released later, INLD’s Dushyant Chautala said the two youths had cleared army’s examination.

“But after the incident, there was an uproar in Parliament and the army has debarred them. Now that they are acquitted, the Defence Ministry should ensure that they are taken into the force,” he said.

BJP’s Nishikant Dubey demanded that Aadhaar be linked to National Population Registry to avoid illegal Bangladeshi immigrants taking benefit of the government schemes.

Krupal Tumane (Shiv Sena) said micro-financing companies have been wreaking havoc on poor families.He said, in his Ramtek constituency in Maharashtra, seven women have committed suicide allegedly due to harassment at the hands of the agents of these companies and demanded a probe into loans given by such micro-financing firms.