Royal row in Rajya Sabha after MP calls Rahul prince

New Delhi: A Congress MP’s statement that his party MP Rahul Gandhi was a “yuvraj” created a row in the Rajya Sabha with the BJP saying the term was a blot on democracy.

Congress member E M Sudarsana Natchiappan angered Opposition MPs by saying Rahul Gandhi had proved himself to be “yuvraj of people and the yuvraj of my party” by marching to the divisional Commissioner's office in Jhansi to know why people were being deprived of their right to employment under the NREGS

"If there is a Yuvraj, there has to be Rajmata (Queen Mother) and a Maharaja (King)," said BJP MP Balbir Punj, who took the floor after Natchiappan, saying Yuvraj was "unacceptable in a democracy".

"It is hard to perceive that the salvation of the country depends on one family," Punj said amidst loud protests from the Congress benches.

"Somebody being referred to as Yuvraj in a democratic country has to be a joke," said Punj. Congress MPs shot back by saying that BJP had only armchair politicians who paid lip service to poverty alleviation.

"Here is a young leader who dares to eat and sleep with the underprivileged to espouse their cause," they said. This triggered a running duel between the Congress and BJP benches and Punj asked: "Does one remove rural poverty by marching to Divisional Commissioner's office? It amounts to trivialising the issue of poverty.”

Amidst the uproar, Amar Singh of the Samajwadi Party said the discussion was on rural development and members should stick to the subject.

Punj charged Congress members with trying to derail the discussion by referring to other issues.

Brinda Karat of the CPI-M said that in the recent polls in Nepal, people had voted the monarchy out and a democratic government had come to power. "The Raja and Maharaja have been shown the door. In this context how far is it valid to use the term Yuvraj?" she asked.

The episode finally died down when former JD(U) MP Sharad Yadav, in his speech referred to the incident, saying politics had been reduced to hypocrisy. "One day a person spends a night in remote region of Bundelkhand and the next day he is spotted at IPL," he said.