New Delhi, March 24: A scuffle between some Congress MPs and Delhi Police was on Thursday raised in Parliament with K C Venugopal alleging that peaceful Congress members were manhandled by Delhi Police as they marched from Vijay Chowk to Parliament. “With pain and sorrow, I would like to invite the attention of this House… It was a peaceful agitation. We demonstrated peacefully. After the demonstration we were coming back to Parliament. The Delhi Police jumped on us, they literally stopped and manhandled us including women MPs. This is very bad,” Venugopal said.
The MPs from Kerala were protesting against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a controversial rail project in the state. A chaotic situation was created outside Parliament when the police personnel stopped the MPs. Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu said: “You provide me details, I will find out from the Home Ministry and we will discuss it.” Vijayan met the Prime Minister to seek speedy Central clearance for Kerala’s multi-crore rail project.
Later, Venugopal termed the incident a “preposterous misuse of State power to silence the nation’s democratic voice”. “While the CPI-M destroys Kerala’s future through its Silver line project and bulldozes the people’s voice, BJP’s diktat has led to manhandling of MPs by Delhi Police,” Venugopal wrote on Twitter. Delhi Police denied manhandling of any MP. The staff at the barricades tried to stop them as they were shouting and moving towards Parliament without revealing there identity. Later, they were allowed to move, the police said.
UNI
