High drama on Parliament premises as cops clash with Kerala's UDF MPs

Parliament protest
UDF MPs trying to break barricade on Parliament premises.

Parliament premises witnessed high drama on Thursday as security personnel clashed with a group of MPs from Kerala who marched to the Lok Sabha in protest against the Kerala government's proposed SilverLine semi high speed rail corridor project.

MPs belonging to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) alleged they were manhandled by the security personnel while they were taking out a march from Vijay Chowk. The MPs were holding placards.

TV channels aired visuals of security personnel blocking the MPs even as they say, "we are members of Parliament."

Congress general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP K C Venugopal said the security personnel's behaviour was unprecedented in the history of Indian Parliament. "We will raise the issue in Parliament and move a previlege motion," he said.

Congress MP Ramya Haridas said she was manhandled by male police personnel. 

Raising the issue in Lok Sabha , Congress member Kodikkunnil Suresh said a total of 12 MPs, including women parliamentarians, had started their protest march from Vijay Chowk at 10.45 am on Thursday when Delhi police personnel came and "blocked them without any provocation".

"We told them we were MPs. They (police) said you (protesting MPs) are shouting slogans. We said it is our right to shout slogans. They assaulted us, manhandled us, pushed us without any provocation," Suresh told Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

RSP member N K Premchandran called the incident "unfortunate" and said the police personnel were well aware that all those participating in the protest were MPs, but still did not allow them to enter the Parliament complex.

"This is a question of our privilege," the RSP leader said.

The Speaker assured the members that he will "discuss this matter with the authorities", saying the members had raised their grievance before him in writing as well.

The UDF MPs staged the protest even as Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was set to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking permission to implement the SilverLine project.

The incident happened a day after the Rajya Sabha witnessed an altercation between CPM and BJP MPs with both accusing each other of doing politics over the 529.45 km semi-high-speed K-Rail-Silverline Project in Kerala.

The SilverLine project of the CPM-led government in Kerala has been facing massive protests over the survey and marking of the corridor boundary, and is embroiled in political controversy.

CPM MP John Brittas alleged in the Upper House of Parliament that Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was doing "petty politics" over the project and the Congress as well as the Muslim League were "hand in glove" over it.

On his part, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan accused the Kerala government of "misleading" the people about the K-Rail project and termed the opposition's protest "ill-motivated".

There was a serious law and order situation as people protesting the project are beaten black and blue and threatened by the Left government, who are considered to be a supporter of the poor, he claimed.

The Upper House was discussing the working of the Ministry of Railways.

No need to rush through project: Railway Minister

Union Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnav has advised the Kerala government against showing any hurry in implementing the SilverLine semi high speed rail project.

While speaking in Rajya Sabha, the minister said the state government’s assessment that the project cost would come to around Rs 63,000 crore, was not correct. According to the estimates and assessment of the union railway ministry the project cost is likely to go beyond Rs 1 lakh crore. Besides, there are several technical and environmental issues connected with the project.

He said the standard gauge railway track being constructed for the train running at a speed of 200 km per hour, cannot be used for trains which are operating on the existing broad gauge lines.  Moreover, the protest of the people against the project was also continuing in the state.

Therefore, there is no need to rush through the project. The project should be implemented after detailed consultations, addressing all concerns and complying with the requirements, the minister said.

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