On International Women’s Day, Haryana Assembly on Wednesday witnessed heated arguments between two women legislators which ended with a female Cabinet Minister shedding tears and a former Minister being condemned by the House.
Women and Child Development Minister Kavita Jain and Congress leader and former Minister Geeta Bhukkal engaged in a war of words over the State Government’s decision of organising a State-level function to honour women achievers on March 15 instead of March 8 this year.
In conjunction with International Women’s Day, the House had decided to give maximum time to the women legislators to speak during the general discussion on budget estimates 2017-18.
Speaking during the discussion, Congress’ Geeta Bhukkal, condemned the BJP led State Government for not organising the State-level function to celebrate the Women’s Day and also sought reply from the Government on this.
Responding to Jhajjar MlA Bhukkal, Cabinet Minister Kavita Jain informed the House that as the budget session is going on, the State- level celebrations of Women's Day would be organised in Sonipat on March 15.
Jain went onto say that previous Congress Governments in the State did nothing for safety and security of women and the ruling BJP Government, on the other hand, is committed towards women welfare.
However, things turned ugly when Geeta Bhukkal alleged that Kavita Jain does not know anything about her departments and her husband, Rajiv Jain, who is a senior BJP leader, checks the files related to her departments, indicating that Kavita Jain is a proxy Minister.
Reacting sharply to Bhukkal’s comment, Kavita Jain demanded an apology from the Congress MlA and also urged the Deputy Speaker Santosh Yadav to send Bhukkal out of the House.
“I will not sit till Bhukkal apologises for her remarks or is sent out of the House,” said Jain.
Soon after, the BJP legislators stood up from their seats protesting against Bhukkal and demanded an apology from her.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, then intervened and asked Geeta Bhukkal to take back her words.
As the ruckus continued, Kavita Jain turned emotional and could not hold back her tears while saying, Bhukkal has today proved that “A woman is a woman’s worst enemy”.
After this, Jain was seen shedding tears while the treasury benches launched a scathing attack on Congress legislator Bhukkal, asking her to apologise for her remarks. BJP MlA latika Sharma then rushed to Jain and was seen consoling her.
Stating that the Congress MlAs are laughing even when a woman MlA is crying in the State Assembly, Finance Minister Capt. Abhimanyu said, “We will not let the House function, till Geeta Bhukkal apologises for her shameful comments.”
Amidst the pandemonium that broke out in the State Assembly, Ram Bilas Sharma moved a resolution to condemn Congress’ MlA, Bhukkal for her remarks against Jain.
Deputy Speaker, Santosh Yadav, a woman legislator from Ateli constituency, admitted the resolution, which was passed unanimously by the House to condemn Bhukkal.
Meanwhile, Cabinet Minister Kavita Jain, who broke down in tears, had a few parting words before the House was adjourned for the day, “These were not the tears of a Minister but a woman”.