India's rowdy parliament session ends

Police launch probe against Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI:

India's winter parliament session ended on Friday after chaotic arguments and allegations of violence by lawmakers across the board, earning a stiff rebuke from the vice president for "destructive disruptions".

Police launched a formal probe against opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after two ruling party lawmakers claimed they were pushed and injured in scuffles at protests outside the parliament building.

The two lawmakers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rightwing ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were admitted to hospital on Thursday.

The Congress party dismissed the incident as a political gimmick.

But Congress also filed a police complaint, claiming their veteran lawmaker Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the opposition in parliament's upper house, was injured at the same protest site, also on Thursday.

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, chairman of the upper house, reprimanded lawmakers before the session came to an unceremonious end.

"As parliamentarians, we are drawing severe criticism from the people of India - and rightfully so," Dhankar said.

"These persistent disruptions are steadily eroding public trust in our democratic institutions. It is time to choose between meaningful debate and destructive disruptions."

Arguments were triggered by claims of disrespect to India's independence icon and hero of the marginalised Dalit community, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar.

Gandhi's Congress party this week accused Home Minister Amit Shah, a close Modi confidant, of disrespecting Ambedkar in a speech inside parliament.

Shah, Modi, and the BJP dismissed the charge and said the opposition was resorting to "malicious lies".

One of the key architects of India's constitution, Ambedkar is a revered figure for India's marginalised, who credit him for many key social reforms.

Modi won a third term in office this year but without the majority he enjoyed in the last two parliaments, forcing the BJP to rely on coalition allies.

The opposition secured enough required seats for Gandhi to formally take up the post of leader of the opposition in parliament's lower house, which had been vacant since 2014.

Gandhi, a scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades, was briefly disqualified from parliament last year after a conviction for criminal libel in a case brought by a BJP member.

The verdict was later suspended by a higher court.

His supporters accused the government of seeking to eliminate him as a rival to Modi.