Parliament pays tribute to Jyoti Basu, Mirdha, Janeshwar

Rich tributes were today paid to veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu and former union minister Ram Niwas Mirdha by both Houses of Parliament on the opening day of the Budget session.

In the Rajya Sabha, obituary reference was also made to sitting Samajwadi Party member Janeshwar Mishra and former Congress member Dinesh Chandra Swami, who represented
Rajasthan in the House from 1976 to 1982.

Chairman Hamid Ansari made the obituary reference in the Rajya Sabha and speaker Meira Kumar in the Lok Sabha. 

As Janeshwar Mishra's name was not mentioned in the obituary references in the Lok Sabha, SP leader Shailendra Kumar raised the issue with the speaker taking note of his objection.

As Ansari announced adjournment of the Upper House for the day, Balbir Punj and Prakash Javadekar (both BJP) demanded a reference of the incident of the beheading of two Sikhs by
Talibans in Pakistan.

They were joined by Tarlochan Singh (Independent) and Avtar Singh Karimpuri (BSP), who also requested the Chair to pay homage to those killed in the incident.

Janeswhar Mishra, who passed away on January 22 this year at the age of 76, was the leader of SP in the Rajya Sabha. 

A former Union minister, Mishra represented Uttar Pradesh in the House.

Both the Houses were then adjourned for the day after members stood in silence as a mark of respect to the departed.