The fourth day of the Monsoon session was another stormy day Rajya Sabha witnessed when Congress along with TMC staged a walk out over the remarks of Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar over lynching.
He had commented that one should not suffer from selective amnesia and forget cases of lynching as seen in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He also pointed out the incident when 42 people were killed in Godhra, by setting on fire of a train bogey saying that though it was all past incidents and it should not be forgotten, people should not talk only about killings in the name of Gau Raksha and be selective. He said that any form of lynching should be strongly condemned.
Reacting to these remarks made by Javadekar the oppositions alleged that he was justifying the killings by Gau Rakshaks in different parts of the country. Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) asked Javadekar if he was trying to compare lynching by cow vigilant to the 1984 and 2002 cases. While Kumari Selja (Congress) questioned if Javadekar would not condemn the attacks by cow vigilant.
Relying upon these questions Javadekar said that he was not selective about protesting about just the killings by Gau Rakshaks, he condemned all lynching cases even those that were reported during 2012 and 2016 during the time when the states were ruled by non-BJP parties.
On this, leader of Opposition in RS Ghulam Nabi Azad said that if such words were coming from an Education Minister, what type of learning will be imparted in the country. He alleged Javadekar of raising the issue selectively and said that these issues should not be related to any religion.
Following this debate, Congress and TMC staged a walk out from the session.