Majlis refuses to condole Rao's death

The Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen, a party with five members in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, on Tuesday refused to support a condolence motion in the House to pay tributes to former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, who died on December 23, 2004.

MIM members walked out of the assembly after the motion was moved.

MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said before leading his colleagues out that Muslims all over the country were still angry with him over the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

Rao was the prime minister then.

"We cannot, or even history will not, forget the demolition of Babri Masjid, which was caused due to his political inaction," he said.

"We are neither sad nor happy on his death because lot of Muslims have been put to untold mental agony by him," he said.

Later, the motion was passed with the remaining members paying rich tributes to Rao, who was also the state's chief minister.

This is the first time in the parliamentary history of India that a party has refused to endorse a condolence motion to pay tributes to an ex-PM.

Earlier, tabling the motion, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy described Rao as the architect of India's economic reforms.