Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 9: In a powerful show of support and unity among the INDIA bloc, the entire Opposition led by the former Congress president Sonia Gandhi walked out of the Rajya Sabha on Friday afternoon after the Samajwadi Party five-time member Jaya Bachchan, the onetime noted Bollywood actress, clashed with Chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar over the “tone” of his voice when addressing certain lawmakers.
In a repetition of the arguments that took place between Ms Bachchan and Mr Dhankhar in the House earlier in the week when the SP member had stressed that calling her merely by “Jaya Bachchan” without inserting her husband Amitabh Bachchan’s name in the middle was adequate for her, Mr Dhankhar again addressed her on Friday as “Jaya Amitabh Bachchan.”
Ms Bachchan did not object for calling her by the full name but had risen in the House to complain about Mr Dhankhar’s tone. “Sir, I, Jaya Amitabh Bachchan (to chuckles from some benches), want to say this… I am an actor. I understand body language and expression (to applause). We are colleagues, sir. You may be sitting on the chair, but that does not mean you will school us and, forgive me, but your tone is not acceptable…” she remarked. A furious Mr Dhankhar cut her short and said Ms Bachchan “may be a celebrity (but) you have to understand the decorum…” He shouted back, “Jayaji, you may have earned a great reputation. (But) you know the actor is subject to the director… I don’t want a schooling. “No… no… enough of this…”
Speaking to reporters after today’s walk-out, Ms Bachchan said, “It was a humiliating experience…” and criticised the treatment of opposition MPs, contrasting it with the latitude given to those from the ruling BJP. “Whatever is said from the Chair… is allowed. Outside the Chair, the individual is like us, an MP. I objected to the tone used by the Chair. We are not school children and some of us are even senior citizens. I was upset with the tone… especially when the Leader of the Opposition (Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge) stood up to speak he (the Chair) switched the mike off…” she said.
Referring to events of mic turn-offs and denial of permission to the Leader of the Opposition to speak, she said, “You have to allow the Leader of Opposition to speak…I mean using un-parliamentary words every time which I do not want to say in front of you all. You are a nuisance, ‘Buddhiheen’. He said you may be a celebrity, I do not care. I am not asking him to care.” “I am saying I am a Member of Parliament. This is my fifth term. I know what I am saying. The way things are being spoken in Parliament these days, nobody has ever spoken before. I want an apology. What is the problem? It is so disrespectful to women,” she said firmly.
Ms Bachchan has demanded an apology. “I need an apology from the Chair,” she said. Opposition MPs – led by Sonia Gandhi and the Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien – gathered outside Parliament, flanking Ms Bachchan in a significant statement, and several later spoke on her behalf.
Congress parliamentary committee chief Jairam Ramesh told reporters opposition MPs had been repeatedly insulted in Parliament and denied a chance to speak. Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Priyanka Chaturvedi pointed out Ms Bachchan has “vast parliamentary experience… more than the Vice President”, while her Trinamool Congress colleague, Dola Sen, said Ms Bachchan was a four-time MP and deserved respect.
Opposition MPs’ walk-out triggered a furious reaction from BJP chief and Rajya Sabha MP JP Nadda, who called the protest “indecent and irresponsible” behaviour. “The opposition wants to weaken the country (and should) apologise,” he declared in the (by now largely empty) House. “It is clear that their standards have fallen in politics… from opposing a party and individual, now they are opposing the country. They want to divide the country,” he claimed.
Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan declared “I have never seen such unruly, indecent behaviour of the opposition.” “Today the mind is distressed…filled with pain. This is not only an insult to the Chair, it is an insult to the democratic values of the country. It is an insult to democracy… it is an insult to the Constitution.” “Today it has been proved that the irresponsible opposition is trying to push the country into anarchy. The opposition should apologise, has shamed the House and country,” he claimed.
The BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya has demanded that Ms Bachchan “apologise to the Chair now.” In a post on X, he wrote, “Jaya Amitabh Bachchan should know that a Member of Parliament and the Vice President of India are not colleagues. The Chairperson is responsible for running the House and MPs are bound by the Chair’s diktat. She should stop being smug and preachy.”
Ms Bachchan and Mr Dhankhar have exchanged heated words earlier in this Parliament session too – over the latter’s introduction of her (in the House) as “Jaya Amitabh Bachchan. Ms Bachchan expressed her strong disapproval of this practice.
On Monday too Ms Bachchan had objected to Mr Dhankhar, saying, “Sir, only Jaya Bachchan would have sufficed”, and stressing her unease about women being identified only by their husband’s names as if “they don’t have their own identity.” Ms Bachchan had then criticised the “new drama started by you all (referring to her political rivals the BJP).”This did not happen before,” she said.
Last month she had corrected Deputy Chairperson Harivansh Narayan Singh on the same ground. “Shrimati Jaya Amitabh Bachchanji, please,” he had said, inviting her to speak. “Sir, sirf Jaya Bachchan bolte to kaafi hojata (It would’ve been enough to call me Jaya Bachchan),” she said, adding,”… women will be recognised by the names of their husbands. They have no existence or achievements of their own” when told that was the name registered in Parliament records.
