Question Hour turns Zero Hour

Speaker Manohar Joshi said he was not going to suspend Question Hour and asked the members to go back to their seats. At this point, Sonia said the issue being raised by Buta was one of ‘‘great urgency’’.

‘‘We want to speak on the issue now,’’ she said. That seemed to have an immediate effect, and Joshi allowed Buta to have his say.

Buta referred to a February incident when Dalits, who were celebrating Guru Ravi Das’ birth anniversary, were attacked in Kaithal. He accused Haryana of shielding the culprits. Mulayam Singh Yadav got up to support Buta and added ‘‘we also have a problem in UP’’. He then described how SP offices were raided despite an Allahabad HC stay order. No sooner had he finished than V. Radhakrishnan (CPI-M) raised the Marad killings followed by Ram Vilas Paswan who demanded the Government send a senior leader to visit the ailing Savita Ambedkar.

When Swami Chinmayananda (BJP) also started speaking on the Kerala killings, Joshi said, ‘‘You’re in the ruling party, at least you must cooperate.’’ Thereafter, the Question Hour began, 25 minutes behind schedule.