Deadlock over Niranjan Jyoti's hate speech resolves in Rajya Sabha

New Delhi: After a week of uproar by opposition parties over Minister of State Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti's hate speech, the deadlock has finally ended in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

As the Narendra Modi government refused to adopt a resolution condeming Jyoti's speech, which could be seen as a climbdown by the government, the House saw repeated adjournments. The opposition parties even gave a joint statement to the media condemning Jyoti's speech and insisted on resolution being passed.

The opposition MPs even submitted the resolution to the Rajya Sabha Chairman and demanded its passage. The Chairman said that nobody should make statements that are divisive, derogatory and unconstitutional after which the House started functioning.

Congress MP Anand Sharma said, "We want Parliament to function. The opposition wanted a censure motion to be passed against Sadhvi Niranjan. We placed this motion in the House as we disapporved of the inflamatory nature of the comments made by the minister.

As second week of the winter session witnessed disruptions over the controversial statement by Niranjan Jyoti, several bills were not taken up.

They include: The Textiles Undertakings (Nationalisation) Laws (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2014 to replace an Ordinance, The Constitution Scheduled Castes Orders (Amendment) Bill, 2014, The Central Universities Bill, 2014 and The School of Planning and Architecture Bill, 2014 that have already been passed by the Lok Sabha this session.