New Delhi: Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday lashed out at the Opposition in Lok Sabha as it protested on the Pegasus issue while junior minister Bharti Pawar was replying to a question in the House.
This was Pawar's first oral response to a question in the Lower House of Parliament. She was inducted into the Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet last month after a reshuffle in the Council of Ministers. Just as an Adivasi (tribal) woman stood to reply, opposition members did not allow her to do so and this is an 'insult' to her, Mandaviya said as he came to the minister of state (MoS) for health's defense.
When Lok Sabha convened for the day, questions for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare were first on the list during the Question Hour. Pawar started replying to a question, but members of the opposition raised the Pegasus snooping and farm laws issues and protested against the government.
The MoS was replying to a supplementary question on institutional deliveries and maternal mortality and she said the opposition does not have the courage to listen to the work done by Prime Minister Modi for the protection of women and children.
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Slamming the opposition for not letting Pawar reply, Mandaviya said she hails from an Adivasi community and has an MBBS degree. 'She is standing to reply (as a minister) from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. But an Adivasi woman (minister) wants to present to the House and country the reply about health and family welfare, but the opposition does not want to listen to it,' he said.
'The Constitution enabled women to get elected to Parliament. Modi ji included them in the Council of Ministers. This is an insult to Adivasi women. I urge the opposition to listen to an Adivasi woman, a learned Adivasi woman,' Mandaviya said. Pawar is a first-time MP from Dindori in Nashik in Maharashtra.
PTI
