Newly-elected Congress MP from Tiruvallu, Tamil Nadu, Sasikanth Senthil sparked an uproar in Lok Sabha on Tuesday when he told the government to stop atrocities against the minorities after he took the oath.
“Stop the shameful atrocities against minorities, dalits and adivasis… Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan,” Senthil said at the end of his oath amid uproar by BJP MPs.
“Jai Bhim… Jai Samvidhan,” he said before walking down the podium.
The video instantly went viral on social media.
As the BJP MPs protested, the pro-term speaker said that Senthil’s calls against atrocities will not be recorded, as is the usual practice after an MP takes oath.
His X profile is described with ‘caution, potentially sensitive content’ by the social media giant.
This is the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha after the general elections, which saw the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secure 293 seats and the INDIA bloc win 234, with the Congress holding 100 of them.
Who is Sasikanth Senthil?
A former IAS, Senthil resigned from the bureaucrat post after the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019. He said it was “unethical to remain in the post when the fundamental building blocks of a diverse democracy are being compromised”.
He joined the Congress in 2020.
He defeated BJP strongman and Tamil Nadu state president K Annamalai by over 2 lakh votes in the recently held Lok Sabha elections. Interestingly, Annamalai is also a former IPS officer.
In an interview with India Today, Senthil described his fight against Annamalai as a ‘fight between two ideologies’, instead of between an IAS and an IPS officer.
“This is a battle between two ideologies, not merely between an IPS and an IAS officer. Two ideologies at opposite ends of the spectrum are clashing: one represents the idea of India, embodied by the Congress, while the other represents everything that goes against the essence of India, as embodied by the BJP,” Senthil was quoted by the India Today.
