The absence of Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani from the Lok Sabha caused an uproar today while a motion on atrocities on Dalits was taken up for a discussion.Resenting Advani’s absence, Opposition members said: ‘‘This only shows how much the NDA Government is concerned about the welfare of Dalits.’’ Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party, Ramji Lal Suman of the SP, Jaipal Reddy of the Congress and Basudeb Acharia took exception to Advani’s absence.As Speaker Manohar Joshi called Ratan Lal Kataria of the BJP to move his motion calling the attention of the Deputy Prime Minister to the situation arising out of the atrocities on Dalits, Paswan pointed at Advani’s absence and said there was no point discussing the motion. Suman said: ‘‘The Government is not serious about it.’’Reddy suggested that the motion be converted into a discussion under rule 193. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj responded by saying that the Government had no objection. However, she recalled that the House had had a full-fledged discussion on the issue during the last session. She said Kataria had given notice for a call-attention motion over a particular issue which gets diluted in a larger discussion. Paswan expressed himself in agreement with her. Kataria pressed his motion and favoured a discussion under rule 193 too.The Speaker said: ‘‘You cannot have both.’’ He ruled that the Business Advisory Committee would give priority to the matter and fix time for a discussion on it next week. Congress Deputy leader Shivraj Patil said members were sensitive to the issue and let it be discussed next week.
