Congress MP 'Depressed, Ashamed' on Being Called 'Mad' in Rajya Sabha
A Rajya Sabha Member of the Congress said he is feeling "depressed, dejected and ashamed" at being called "mad and a laughing stock" by the Chair on Friday. Congress MP KVP Ramachandra Rao has lashed out at Kurien in a letter to Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien and shared with the media on Sunday, He said the use of those words were "not any humiliation for me but... certainly a great humiliation for the people of my state (Andhra Pradesh), who were agitating for the fulfillment of their legitimate rights". While a number of opposition members from various parties stood to the left of the podium raising the issue of police high-handedness against Muslims in Uttar Pradesh's Kasganj, day, Rao stood near the Chairman's podium, displaying a placard to the House. Kurien asked Rao to stop but when the latter ignored his instructions, Kurien wondered if Rao had gone "mad" and is thus behaving this way. Kurien also asked Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad to intervene and ask Rao to go back to his seat. However, Kurien had shortly afterward expunged the word "mad" and its subsequent references from the records of the House. In his letter, Rao wrote: "For the first time in life, I could not console myself last night with a deep feeling of depression and dejection and felt ashamed being the Member of Parliament who was compelled to stay a silent spectator during the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in the name of parliamentary customs and conventions... "...And now being referred to by Chair as 'mad and laughing stock' solely because of democratically demanding the Central government to implement the A.P. Reorganisation Act and fulfill the constitutional commitments made to the people of the state." The remarks were later expunged by the Chair. -PTC News
