A massive ruckus erupted in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday after Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP TR Baalu called Union minister L Murugan ‘unfit to be a minister’.
The incident occurred during Question Hour on damages caused due to natural disasters. DMK MP A Raja and A Ganeshmurthy had asked the government whether it had sent any Central team to assess the damages caused due to very heavy rainfall and flooding, natural disasters in Chennai and its suburbs and in the South of Tamil Nadu in December.
According to ANI report, Baalu was speaking during the Question Hour when Murugan, who also hails from Tamil Nadu, intervened.
“Why do you interfere, please sit down…What do you want…You are unfit to be a member of Parliament. You are unfit to be minister also,” the DMK MP from Sriperumbdur said.
Union ministers Pralhad Joshi and Arjun Ram Meghwal confronted Baalu, alleging it as an insult to a Dalit.
“TR Baalu was asking a question. A Dalit minister of our Council of Ministers stood up and simply said that you are asking irrelevant questions. And you called him unfit. He is also a Dalit and also comes from the SC community. (Baalu) called him unfit. This is an insult to the Dalit community. We want Baalu to apologise,” Union minister Meghwal said.
Hitting out at the DMK MP, Murugan told ANI,”DMK is unable to tolerate that a minister from a downtrodden community is a minister. This is why he used a derogatory and unparliamentary word to insult my community and me,” the minister said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded an apology from Baalu, even accusing the Congress of supporting the DMK leader. “He (DMK MP TR Baalu) wanted to insult him (MoS & BJP leader L Murugan)…We have demanded an apology from him…Congress leaders also supported him (DMK MP TR Baalu),” Meghwal said.
Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai slammed the DMK MP, calling him a ‘disgrace to politics’. “Thiru TR Balu is a disgrace to politics & this is not the first time he has made disgraceful remarks about a member of the Scheduled Caste Community. I strongly condemn these remarks on Hon MoS Thiru @Murugan_MoS avl in the Temple of Democracy,” the BJP leader posted on X.
‘Not an unparliamentary remark’
Under fire from the BJP, Baalu defended his comment on the minister. “It is not an unparliamentary remark…,” he told reporters.