The Question Hour in the Haryana Assembly on Thursday witnessed uproarious scenes as the Congress tried to corner the Manohar lal Government for allegedly giving land to Baba Ramdev for developing ‘World Herbal Forest’ in Morni in the State.
While the Cabinet Minister Anil Vij clarified that no land has been allotted to Baba Ramdev and an MoU has been signed with Patanjali to develop the ‘World Herbal Forest’ in Morni, the Congress MlA Karan Singh Dalal alleged that the Government is misleading the House and is trying to give unfair advantage to Baba Ramdev, who was also appointed as State’s brand ambassador for promotion of yoga and ayurveda.
The issue triggered off heated exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches.
However, things turned ugly when the Minister Manish Kumar Grover made comments on Congress legislators, while they were walking out of the House.
When the Congress members started to walk out of the House, State Cooperation Minister Manish Grover commented, “They (Congress) should be pulled out of the House by their ears.” This triggered angry reactions from the Congress MlAs, who trooped to the House demanding an action against Grover.
As Speaker Kanwar Pal was trying to persuade the legislators to return to their seats, Parliamentary Affairs Minister too rushed into the well of the House to pacify the situation.
The Congress legislators then returned to their seats, but stormed into the well of the House few minutes later when Minister Grover refused to accept that he used derogatory words against the
opposition leaders.
After returning to his seat, Congress’ Randeep Surjewala requested the Speaker to ensure justice with the opposition as he is custodian of the House.
A minister has used unparliamentarily language against two dalit women MlAs of the Congress, he alleged.
Following this, a verbal spat broke out between the Congress and BJP members, who blamed each other for doing politics in the name
of dalits.
To pacify the agitated MlAs, the Speaker reprimanded both ruling and opposition legislators for using unparliamentarily language in the House and also, warned them to refrain from making such comments in the future.
Unhappy with the Speaker for not taking any action against BJP’s Manish Grover, the Congress MlAs rushed into the Well of the Haryana Assembly for the third time.
Amid uproar, the Speaker asked the Congress MlAs to return to their seats and let the House function.
Targeting the BJP led Haryana Government, Congress MlA Karan Singh Dalal then said that Ramdev is BJP’s Baba.
More than half an hour of the question hour was washed out due to the furore over Baba Ramdev and later, over Manish Grover’s comments.
Earlier, Health Minister, Anil Vij informed the House that Yoga Guru, Ramdev will only offer free consultation for the development of a herbal forest in Morni area.
He will neither take any financial or commercial benefit from this project, nor would he have right of ownership of the land, he said adding that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been signed between the Haryana Government and Patanjali Research Institute, Haridwar for development of this forest.
Vij pointed out that Ramdev was brand ambassador of the State and the herbal forest is being only developed under his guidance, to which a Congress member quipped, "Seth Ramdev kaho”. (call him Seth Ramdev)
The Minister further clarified that there is no such provision in the MoU under which it could be said that the ownership rights of land of Morni have been given to Baba Ramdev and Patanjali Research Institute, Haridwar or any of his associates. The ownership and jurisdiction of the entire land of Morni would remain as such with the persons concerned or the Forest Department, he added.