Mayawati threatens to stall Parliament on Ambedkar cartoon issue

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The issue of publication of a cartoon of B.R. Ambedkar in an NCERT book threatened to snowball into a crisis with BSP Chief Mayawati on Friday declaring she will not allow Parliament to function if action was not taken those responsible for the act within three days.

"This is an insult on Indian democracy. The government should intervene and take strong action against those, who are involved in this. If it failed to do so, we will wait for two to three days or else our party will not allow the House to run," Mayawati told reporters outside Parliament.

HRD Ministry later said that the government has ordered removal of the cartoon from the NCERT textbooks.

Members of her party forced adjournments in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha over the issue and disallowed HRD Minister Kapil Sibal from making a statement.

LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan also slammed the publication as 'highly deplorable'. He said that those who have made this kind of cartoon and also those who endorsed it should not only be suspended but should be booked under the SC/ST act.

Wondering how can such objectionable material creep into NCERT books, a visibly angry Paswan said, "NCERT should be closed down."

RJD leader Lalu Prasad termed Ambedkar's depiction in the cartoon as 'very sad' and said it should not have happened. He said Ambedkar had a very big role in framing of the Constitution.

Striking a similar note, JD-U president Sharad Yadav said that he was anguished over the depiction and hoped that it will be removed from the book soon.