Bhupender Yadav stokes row with jibe at Opposition over ‘sengol’

Environment minister Bhupender Yadav stoked controversy in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday after he said the ‘sengol was treated like a “walking stick” by the Congress, instead of a symbol of justice, drawing protests from opposition MPs.

“They are not telling where it [the Sengol] was for 75 years,” Yadav said.

Congress’s Jairam Ramesh retorted by saying, “This narrative about the sengol is a story they have spread, it is not history. This was never handed over formally. Some people came and gave it and these people [the BJP] created a new story about it.”

“This is not a story, this is history.” BJP president and Union health minister JP Nadda retorted, claiming that at the time of Independence, Mountbatten had asked if there was a ritual related to the handover of power practised in India, to which Nehru apparently said no.

“When it was eventually transferred to a museum, it was labelled, ‘Jawaharlal Nehru’s walking stick’,” Nadda claimed.

Congress’s Rajeev Shukla, who was chairing the house at the time, asked Nadda to authenticate his claims in writing.