New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union minister Anurag Thakur faced Opposition ire as he rose to speak during the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament.
The slogans were in response to the minister’s election speech in Delhi last week during which he was seen on video urging a crowd to chant “Goli Maaro S***n Ko” or “shoot the traitors” in reference to protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
As the proceedings began in the Lok Sabha, BJP MP from Rajasthan’s Dausa Jaskaur Meena sought answer from the government about the steps being taken for the welfare in Parliament. As Thakur, the Minister of State for finance, stood up, the Opposition MPs raised their voices and started shouting ‘Goli maarna band karo (stop shooting people)’ and ‘Bhadkau bhashan band karo (stop inflammatory speeches)’.
#BudgetSession2020: Opposition MPs raise ‘Goli maarna band karo’ slogans as MoS Finance Anurag Thakur speaks in Lok Sabha. pic.twitter.com/81ioZiUIGc
— ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2020
Thakur is a Member of Parliament from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh.
Campaigning for his party for Delhi Assembly elections in Rithala last month, Thakur had chanted a provocative slogan: “Desh ke Gaddaron ko, goli maaron saalon ko”. The rough English translation is “shoot the traitors”.
#BudgetSession2020 : Uproar in Lok Sabha as few opposition MPs shout “Goli maarna bandh karo; desh ko todna bandh karo”. pic.twitter.com/GIQXjpifgP
— ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2020
The fraught situation in Delhi ahead of the Assembly elections on February 8, the Opposition leaders had said that such provocative speeches resulted in incidents like firing at protesters near Jamia Millia Islamia University last week, who were demonstrating against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA.
The Jamia Millia Islamia Teachers Association on Friday blamed the BJP leader for the firing incidents near the university, in one of which a student was injured on Saturday, saying nothing can be more “anti-national” than a minister inciting citizens to indulge in violence from a public platform.
