Smriti Irani and Mayawati had a face-off yet again in Rajya Sabha, with the BSP leader on Friday saying she was not convinced by the HRD Minister's statement with regard to Rohith Vemula's suicide.
Mayawati asked whether Irani would implement her dramatic statement in court on Wednesday about "chopping off" her head.
Mayawati, who has been demanding inclusion of a Dalit in the panel probing Vemula's death, slammed the government for appointing a one-man judicial Commission consisting of former Allahabad High Court judge Ashok Kumar Roopanwal.
"To my question whether a Dalit member is part of the Commission, the government has not answered this so far. On February 24, I had asked this question and it has not been answered so far. Justice Roopanwal is from the upper caste. Government's intention is dubious on this," she said.
She added that as per the laws, the government can increase the strength of the commission, and add a Dalit member, but it has not done this so far, which shows its intentions towards the Scheduled Castes.
The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said government's intentions are now clear and it is trying to save the accused "who are from the RSS".
She said that Irani had said in the House two days back that if BSP is not convinced by the clarification of the government, she (Irani) will chop off her head and present it to her. "Since we are not convinced by the government's clarification, will she (Irani) do that," Mayawati asked. Smriti Irani retorted amidst the loud cheer that Mayawati and her workers can cut her head and take it away.
On Wednesday too, the House had witnessed a clash between Irani and Mayawati over the same issue.
The issue related to the suicide by Vemula, a Dalit student of Hyderabad University, also led to a clash between Irani and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury. He questioned the authenticiity of the document Irani read out in Parliament on Wednesday about JNU celebrations of Mahishasur.
At this, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley interjected, saying "every word" read out by Irani has been authenticated by the Registrar of the University.
Yechury said the government had got these authenticated by the Vice Chancellors and Registrars who are appointed by them.
The CPI (M) leader further said: "Yesterday she (Irani) quoted from Macbeth saying fair is foul and foul is fair. She is making all foul fair without giving any authentication."