Council adjouned briefly over mention of RSS during debate

The proceedings of the Maharashtra Legislative Council were briefly adjourned on Saturday after some members of the opposition BJP objected to a legislator's remarks about the RSS during a discussion in the House. Council member Kapil Patil, who represents the teachers' constituency, said that previous BJP-led state government's decisions in school education department were motivated by the "RSS school of thought".

"Three government resolutions (GRs) had been issued by the previous government, which were motivated by RSS school of thought," he said. Objecting to it, BJP MLCs Prasad Lad, Bhai Girkar and Ranjit Patil, urged deputy chairperson of the council Neelam Gorhe to expunge the remarks.

Refusing to do so, Gorhe asked state School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad to respond to it. "All the three GRs will be examined again and appropriate decision will be taken within a month. The decisions were wrong, but decision will be taken post examination," Gaikwad said.

Patil refused to accept Gaikwad's answer and demanded immediate withdrawal of the three GRs. Patil continued protesting in the House.

After several requests by Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Power Minister Nitin Raut and Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant, Patil returned to his seat. However, Gorhe adjourned the proceedings of the House for five minutes..