Congress, Left rake up Ahamed’s death, disrupt Parliament

While raking up the death issue, the members from Congress and Left forced premature adjournment of Lok Sabha for the day as they created ruckus by alleging that ‘ill-treatment’ was meted out to Ahamed’s family members at the government hospital after he was admitted there on January 31. 

Seventy-eight-year-old Ahamed collapsed during President’s Address to joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on January 31. He was declared dead in the wee hours of next day, hours before presentation of the Budget. In the Lok Sabha, the Opposition members trooped into the Well, raising slogans over Ahamed’s death and disrupting the proceedings. The uproar led to two adjournments before the final for the day at around 1.10 pm. 

“The body was kept there in inhuman way. His daughter and son-in-law too were not allowed to meet for six-seven hours. This all shows that how the government shrouded such big incident to ensure the Budget is presented,” said Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge. 

Kharge, accompanied by Congress MPs including Jyotiraditya Scindia, claimed Ahamed’s body was kept at RML hospital to send out message that ‘he was still alive.’ “The government indirectly pressurised the doctors and kept the body there,” he said, adding even Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders of the party were not allowed to even see Ahamed’s body. 

In Rajya Sabha, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury also demanded a probe into the manner in which Ahamed’s death was ‘handled.’