Mahua Moitra of Trinamool Congress said directly in the Lok Sabha that Justice B.H. Loya had died: this statement created a great stir during a debate on 75 years of the Constitution. This led to heated remarks from the Treasury benches ,with the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju threatening “ proper parliamentary proceeding ”. But then it evoked wrath from the Opposition to result into two interruptions out of the House sitting.
While responding to a speech by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh about PM Modi glorifying late Justice H. R. Khanna for his dissenting judgement during the emergency, Moitra raised Justice Loya’s name. Hearing this she said, “Unlike poor Justice Loya”, which created a furore. Justice Loya died in December 2014 through what some people have accused as assasination since he was handling a politically sensitive trial.
Reacting to her comment, Rijiju said that the SC has already disposed of the Justice Loya case and terming it in Parliament as a serious matter. He assured that he will act, which the members of Opposition condemned as a threat to a woman parliamentarian. However, Congress leader K.C. Venugopal insisted on getting an apology and said that only the Speaker had the power to speak on such issues.
The Speaker of the house Om Birla had to adjudicate at this point telling both Moitra and Rijiju that all the comments will be looked at and as usual the house will order that whatever is non-parliamentary will be expunged. Birla also encouraged Moitra to back up her allegations.
That event fell somewhere in between; the Opposition parties rallied in support of Moitra and to condemn the BJP for suppressing any and all voices of dissent. This raises the tensions typical for the Indian politics that remain divided on such topics as Justice Loya’s death.
When tempers subsided, the House turned towards the debate on Constitution but the opposition has shown the clear political divide in the Parliament.
