BJP to move adjournment motion in LS on Nandigram

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will today move an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha on the continuing violence in Nandigram.

New Delhi, Nov 19 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will today move an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha on the continuing violence in Nandigram.

Senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi has already moved a motion in Rajya Sabha for a debate on Nandigram.

"It is highly surprising that Congress is silent on Nandigram. Just because CPI-M is backing UPA government at the Centre, it is improper to forgive its cadre as Nandigram was made a war zone," Joshi said.

The motion seeks suspension of the Question Hour today to allow discussion on the Nandigram issue.

Earlier, BJP leader V K Malhotra said that Nandigram has witnessed severe crime against women and children and the Lok Sabha has a mandate to discuss issues like this, which amounts to a civil war.

The party cited the discussion of the 2002 Gujarat riots in the Parliament as an example of a 'State issue' being debated in the Parliament.

"Why can't Nandigram be discussed when Gujarat has been discussed several times," Malhotra said.

With the Left Front has shown reluctance for a Parliamentary debate on the issue by citing it to be a "State issue", the party is in no mood to spare the Left on the situation prevailing there, which has led to civil society coming out to protests against the State Government in huge numbers.

Gurudas Das Gupta said that Nandigram could be discussed in the West Bengal Assembly but not in Parliament.

The BJP said that the Nandigram issue is not exclusively a State issue since it relates to the acquisition of land for Special Economic Zone (SEZ), which is a central subject.

ANI