Bahujan Samajwadi Party leader Mayawati on Tuesday tendered her resignation as a Rajya Sabha member, hours after the Chair asked her to restrict her impromptu speech on anti-Dalit violence in Saharanpur of Uttar Pradesh.
Mayawati met Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari this evening and handed over her resignation letter.
"I met the Chairman to hand over my resignation letter. It is not good that I cannot speak in the House on issues close to me... When I got up to speak, the government did not allow me to complete. Their members stood up and interfered. It is not good," she said after resigning.
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Sources in the Rajya Sabha secretariat said the decision on accepting Mayawati's resignation lies with the chairman. The format states that the resignation letter should be brief and should not mention the reasons.
Earlier, in the Rajya Sabha, an angry Mayawati had said she will quit from the house after the Chair asked her to restrict her impromptu speech.
"I will resign from Rajya Sabha today," a visibly anguished Mayawati shot back when Deputy Chairman P J Kurien asked her to wrap up her speech as she had exceeded the three minutes given to her to make her submission.
Mayawati, whose term in the Upper House is till April next year, argued with Kurien saying how can she be prevented from raising the issue about her 'samaj' (community) and the Dalits. "I have not finished. You cannot do this."
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"I have no moral right to be in the House if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities being committed against Dalits," she said.
Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Mayawati was challeging the Chair. "She should apologise. She has threatened the Chair," he said.
Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the government at an all-party meeting before the start of the Monsoon Session had agreed to discuss any issue that the opposition wants to raise in the house.
"Promise was made to us in the presence of the Prime Minister. You are going against that," Azad said.
He said the Opposition led by Congress has given notices to discuss crisis facing farmers, anti-Dalit violence and lynching of minorities.
Responding to the barbs of the treasury benches to respect the people's mandate, Azad said the government has got a mandate to protect the Dalits and minorities and for development.
"You didn't get a mandate to massacre minorities and Dalits," he said adding the Congress was staging a walkout of the House in protest. Congress members then walked out of the House.
Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) said the government policies were pushing farmers to suicide.
Naqvi said the government was ready for discussion on any issue and the opposition should give a notice.
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Kurien said the government was agreeing to having a discussion, so the opposition members should return to their seats and start it.
Earlier, Mayawati while elaborating on the incidents in Saharanpur, said the Dalits had agreed to the district administration's order not to take out any procession or install a statue of Bhim Rao Ambedkar on April 14. But the followers of Maharana Pratap, however, took out a procession on May 5, she said.
Before she could complete, Kurien asked her to sit and called the next speaker, saying "you cannot monopolise", angering Mayawati.
With agency Inputs
