Nagpur, Dec 19: The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra took out a vociferous protest march here on Thursday to condemn and demand an apology from Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his remarks on B.R. Ambedkar in the Parliament.

The MVA constituents, Congress-Shiv Sena (UBT)-Nationalist Congress Party (SP) leaders gathered and joined the long procession from the Constitution Square to the Legislature Building.

They were carrying banners, placards, pictures of B.R. Ambedkar, some sporting copies of the Indian Statute, and raised angry slogans against HM Shah and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Sporting dark blue caps, bands or shawls with the words ‘Jai Bhim’ printed, the top MVA leaders including SS (UBT)’s Leader of Opposition (Council) Ambadas Danve, SS (UBT) Group Leader Aditya Thackeray, Congress’ ex-Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar, NCP (SP)’s state chief Jayant R. Patil, Rohit R. Pawar and other leaders, plus Opposition legislators squarely hit out at HM Shah’s remarks and ranted cries for his apology.

The MVA leaders hailed the virtues of B.R. Ambedkar for giving India a Constitution that has equal rights to all the citizens, uplifted the poor and downtrodden, acknowledged his contributions for the depressed classes and hailed his services to the nation, while vowing that “the country will never tolerate any insults” to him.

Simultaneously, B.R. Ambedkar’s grandson, Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) also organised separate agitations in Pune and other places to flay HM Shah.

SS (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray and other leaders have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sack HM Shah from the Cabinet.

Earlier, the participants bowed, garlanded and saluted a life-size statue of B.R. Ambedkar, paid homage and then launched the march which terminated outside the Vidhan Bhavan where the Winter Session is currently underway and continued to raise slogans against the ruling BJP.

It may be recalled that a couple of days ago, HM Shah had made certain remarks pertaining to B.R. Ambedkar which the Opposition termed as ‘disrespectful’, and went on to spark an outrage in the state and different parts of the country.

However, HM Shah has claimed that his statement was twisted out of context and he turned around to blame the Congress terming it as ‘anti-Ambedkar’ and against the Dalits.

Kolkata, Dec 19: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday sought the response of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the plea filed earlier in the day, seeking a fresh probe in the ghastly rape and murder of a junior woman doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises in August.

In their petition, the victim’s parents have claimed that they are highly unsatisfied with the present course of investigation by the CBI in the matter, a single-judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh has directed the central agency to submit its point of view on the matter to the court.

The next hearing on the matter has been scheduled for December 24 and before that, the CBI will have to submit its response and report to Justice Ghosh’s bench.

According to the parents, since the trial process in the matter has already started and the statements of the witnesses are being recorded, unless the Calcutta High Court intervenes in the matter right now, there might be possibilities of the probe going in the wrong direction.

Since the time a special court in Kolkata last week granted default bail to two individuals accused of tampering with the evidence since the CBI was unable to file a supplementary charge sheet against them within 90 days from the day of their arrest, the victim’s parents, as well as the representatives of the state’s medical fraternity, had been accusing the CBI of gross incompetence in the matter.

The CBI has come under scathing criticism because of its failure to submit the supplementary charge sheet against former and controversial Principal of R.G. Kar Sandip Ghosh and the former SHO of Tala Police Station Abhijit Mondal. Following its failure to submit the charge sheet within the stipulated period, both Ghosh and Mondal were granted default bail in the case by a special court in Kolkata last week.

While Ghosh continues to be behind bars because of the parallel probe by the CBI against him in the case of financial irregularities at R.G. Kar, Mondal is already out on bail.

Recently, the victim’s parents have also changed their counsel representing them at the Supreme Court.

The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, an umbrella of the body of junior doctors in the state spearheading the movement on this issue, has already threatened to resume their protests which they withdrew earlier keeping the larger public interest in mind.

New Delhi, Dec 19: Amidst the ugly scuffle followed by heated exchanges outside the Parliament complex, a BJP woman Parliamentarian has made startling and explosive charges against the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi.

Phangnon Konyak, the woman Rajya Sabha member from Nagaland, filed a complaint with the Rajya Sabha Chairman on Thursday, claiming that her dignity and self-esteem have been deeply hurt because of the ‘behaviour and conduct’ of Rahul Gandhi.

She claimed that the Congress MP along with party members misbehaved with her and also made her ‘uncomfortable’ while she was protesting against the insult meted out to Babasaheb Ambedkar by the grand old party.

“He misbehaved with me in a loud voice and his physical proximity to me was so close that I, being a lady member, felt extremely uncomfortable,” she said.

“I stepped aside with a heavy heart and felt that no Member of Parliament should behave this way,” she added.

Konyak, also the state President of BJP Mahila Morcha in Nagaland, said that the incident happened while she was protesting against Congress’ ‘ill-treatment’ of BR Ambedkar at Makar Dwaar, the main entrance of Parliament building.

“The Security Personnel had cordoned off the area and created a passage to the entrance for Hon’ble MP’s of other parties. Suddenly, Leader of Opposition, Shri Rahul Gandhi Ji along with other Party Members came in front of me despite there being a passage created for them,” she wrote in her complaint.

Earlier, the penultimate day of the Winter Session was marred by a huge controversy as a scuffle broke out between BJP and INDIA bloc MPs over insult and affront to the legacy of the country’s greatest Dalit icon. Two BJP MPs said that they suffered injuries after Rahul pushed a fellow lawmaker. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge also claimed assault by the BJP Parliamentarians, saying that his “knees were hurt”.

Rahul Gandhi has rejected all the allegations and counter-charged that it was he who got shoved by the ruling party MPs.