Exercising pressure on Speaker Om Birla to take action against BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri who used abusive language against BSP MP Danish Ali on the floor of Lok Sabha on Thursday night, at least four Opposition parties have urged him to refer the matter to the Privileges Committee. The BSP president Mayawati, meanwhile, was the slowest to react to the uproar.
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Congress’s floor leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, NCP leader Supriya Sule and TMC’s Aparupa Poddar have written to Mr. Birla. They have also demanded that Mr. Bidhuri must be suspended from Parliament till the Privileges Committee completes its investigations. According to sources, more letters from the other INDIA member parties will follow.
In his letter, Mr. Chowdhury wrote that the exchange reflected “poorly on the Parliament and its sanctity” and that “never in the history of Parliament have such words been used against a member of a minority community”. Expunging the unsavoury words has little impact since it has already been recorded in print and visual media, he added.
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TMC MP Mahua Moitra was the first to flag the exchange on Friday morning when she posted a video of the incident on X (formerly Twitter). “True paragon of impartiality @ombirlakota has apparently warned @rameshbidhuri to not do this again. Wow. While other lesser non BJP mortals like @adhirrcinc & @SanjayAzadSln suspended for far less,” she said. She challenged Mr. Birla to initiate “privilege motion” against her but insisted that he must answer the question of what action is he taking against Mr. Bidhuri.
This was followed by a deluge of outrage from the Opposition while Mr. Ali’s own party president was the slowest to react to the growing uproar. In a prosaic post on X in Hindi, Ms. Mayawati said that though the Speaker has expunged the remarks and warned Mr. Bidhuri and a senior Minister tendered an apology in the House, “it is sad that the party has not yet taken appropriate action against him. Unfortunate.”
Two former Cabinet Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Harsh Vardhan, who can be seen laughing in the background, were also denounced by the Opposition. Congress’s general secretary (Communication) Jairam Ramesh posted on X, “They deserve as much condemnation as the most awful Bidhuri himself. This is the shameful level to which the BJP under Modi-Shah has fallen.”
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Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh, who was in chair at the time of the exchange, said that the House was in disorder and that drowned BJP MP Mr. Ramesh Bhiduri’s speech. “When Danish Ali alerted me about what all Bhiduri had said, I immediately gave a ruling to expunge the unparliamentary words. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also tendered an apology on behalf of Mr. Bhiduri,” he said. It was not in his powers to suspend the errant member, he added.
“As a Parliamentarian, I would like to underline that this is not the first time Mr. Bidhuri has used such unsavoury language,” Mr. Kodikunnil said.
The Opposition also targeted the BJP, saying such incidents were no longer surprising.
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RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha told reporters, “I was saddened, but not surprised. By using such words on the floor of Parliament against a minority MP, we are actually lending legitimacy to abuse against Muslims and Dalits.”
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi also made a similar statement, saying that there was nothing “shocking” about the exchange. “BJP is a bottomless abyss, so every day a new low is reached,” he said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Going a step further, he said that he was sure no action would be taken against Mr. Bidhuri. “There is a possibility that in future he will be made the BJP Delhi State President. Today, Muslims in India are being treated the same way as Jews were treated in Hitler’s Germany,” he added.
CPI general secretary D. Raja, terming Mr. Bidhuri’s comments completely unacceptable, said that BJP “can’t hide its bigotry behind big buildings”.