The Hindu : Karnataka News : BJP stages walkout in Council

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 25, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

BJP stages walkout in Council

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, JAN. 24. The acting Chairman of the Legislative Council, V.R. Sudarshan, today disallowed any discussion on the permission granted to the American evangelist Benny Hinn to hold prayer meetings in Bangalore.

Just before the ruling, the Leader of the Opposition, D.H. Shankaramurthy, led a walkout by members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) condemning the State Government's stand that there is no need for a discussion on the issue as nothing wrong had taken place.

Annoyed

Mr. Shankaramurthy, who had sought to move an adjournment motion, was allowed to make his preliminary submission by the Chair. But, he was annoyed when the Leader of the House and Water Resources Minister, M. Mallikarjun Kharge, was emphatic that nothing that warranted a discussion had happened in Bangalore, rejecting all the allegations against Mr. Hinn.

The Chair had not given its ruling on the preliminary submission whether it would allow a discussion on the issue under some other rule, though not the motion itself, when Mr. Shankaramurthy announced the walkout.

Ruling sought

Realising the mistake, senior members of the BJP, such as Ramachandra Gowda and M.R. Tanga, asked the Chair to give its ruling on the submission and remained in the House till he announced it.

Immediately after that, the Chair adjourned the house for lunch.

Earlier, making his submission, Mr. Shankaramurthy charged the Government with allowing Mr. Hinn and his supporters to attack Hinduism through lakhs of pamphlets. The three-day programme was nothing but a Government show led by the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, though he claimed that his was a secular Government.

The Jakkur airfield, a restricted area, should not have been made available to hold the meeting, he said.

Members from the treasury benches, particularly the Congress, challenged the BJP leaders such as Mr. Shankaramurthy and V.S. Acharya, and they were not allowed to present their views.

The Janata Dal (U) leader M.P. Nadagouda demanded details such as from where the Rs. 20 crores, which Mr. Hinn reportedly spent on the three-day programme, came. The Chief Minister and other Ministers, who spoke of secularism, should not have attended the programme, he said.

Govt. defended

Mr. Kharge defended the permission given to Mr. Hinn to hold the prayer meeting and said religious leaders from the country had made trips abroad and raised money.

It is a constitutional right to practise the religion of one's choice. The BJP is only trying to make political capital out of nothing, he said. "You do not miss any opportunity to attack the minorities and are always dividing the people," Mr. Kharge told the BJP leaders.

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