Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 22: The opposition has demanded his suspense and arrest and the targeted Muslim MP said he was thinking of resigning from Parliament if the ruling party failed to take any action against the guilty member even as the defence minister Rajnath Singh apologised on behalf of his party colleague and the BJP issued him a show cause notice.
Even the Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla warned him of disciplinary action if he repeated such communal slurs after his comments were expunged from the record of the House but the crude and communally charged slurs in Hindi to target Muslims by BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri on the floor of the Lok Sabha against Bahujan Samaj Party MP Kunwar Danish Ali late on Thursday evening, created a huge political storm. The opposition MPs are firm in their demand that Mr Bidhuri be suspended from the Lok Sabha.
As the storm broke, BJP served a show cause notice to Mr Bidhuri, asking him why he should not be suspended from the party for the unparliamentary language used by him on the floor of the House. He has been given 15 days to respond. Mr Ali himself wrote to Speaker Birla, citing rules 222, 226, 227 of the conduct of business rules demanding that Mr Bidhuri’s remarks be referred to the privileges committee of the Lok Sabha.
Listing the objectionable words used against him by Mr Bidhuri, Mr Ali wrote, “this is most unfortunate and the fact that this happened in the new Parliament and under your leadership as Speaker is truly heart-breaking for me as a minority member of this great nation and an elected Member of Parliament,” he wrote in his letter.
Kunwar Danish Ali who was the target of the communal slur, said he was with a heavy heart, considering “leaving” the parliament if no action was taken against Bidhuri. If this can happen to me, what will happen to a common man? An emotional Danish Ali said, on the verge of breaking down on camera, adding that he couldn’t sleep all night as he felt like his brain was about to ‘explode’.
“Was this special session (of the parliament) called to attack elected MPs by linking them to their community? This has shamed the entire country. We will see whether his party will take any action against him or promote him. This is hate speech,” Kunwar Danish Ali said addressing a presser after submitting his letter. Mr Ali said, “we claim to be the mother of democracy but in the very temple of democracy, the kind of language used against an elected MP, like mullah, katwah (circumcised one) and terrorist were used, my soul was shaken.”
Mr Bidhuri made these remarks during a discussion on Chandrayaan-3 in the Lok Sabha late on Thursday evening. He was delivering his speech and during an exchange on some objections raised by Mr Ali and other opposition MPs, Mr Bidhuri let loose a barrage of crude communal slurs in Hindi, with former Union minister Dr Harsha Vardhan seen smiling sitting behind him in the House.
Dr Harsh Vardhan in a post on “X” on Friday, however, claimed that he had been wrongly dragged into the controversy as he had not been able to hear what all were said in the melee. “While I was no doubt witness to the jugglery of words being thrown at each other (which in fact the entire House was), the truth of the matter is that in the chaos that existed, I could not clearly hear what was being said.”
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. Bidhuri’s speech. “When Danish Ali alerted me about what all Mr. Bidhuri 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. He added that the decision to suspend Mr Bidhuri is call to be taken by the Speaker Birla. “Although as a parliamentarian, I can say that this is not the first time Mr Bidhuri has used objectionable language in the House,” he said.
As opposition leaders slammed the BJP MP and demanded action against him, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh expressed regret in the House shortly afterwards. “I express regret if the opposition is hurt by the remarks made by the member,” he said.
But the apology didn’t silence the opposition, which said Mr Bidhuri should be suspended or arrested. “It’s an absolute shame. Rajnath Singh’s apology is not acceptable and half-hearted. This is an insult to parliament, this is a clear case of suspension and Bidhuri statement is an insult to every Indian,” said Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, demanding “strictest possible action” against the BJP leader.
The Congress pointed out that in the previous session, their Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was suspended for allegedly “insulting ministers” yet no action was being taken for a BJP MP saying far worse.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) questioned in a post sharing the video: “BJP Delhi MP is calling another Muslim MP with these words in front of the Speaker in the Parliament Is this the culture of BJP?” The party called it the darkest day in the history of parliament.
RJD MP Manoj Jha said he was “saddened” by the communal slur used by the BJP MP in parliament. “I was saddened, but not surprised. This is the truth of PM’s ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’. We need to think that if such words were used for an MP in Parliament, then to what kind of language against Muslims, Dalits legitimacy is been given? Till now, the PM could not say a word on Ramesh Bidhuri,” Mr Jha regretted.
“Filthy abusive language used by BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri against Danish Ali (BSP) on the floor constitutes the worst kind of hate speech indicted by the Supreme Court. No MP can claim privilege for such speech. He should be arrested,” the CPI (M) demanded in a statement.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah highlighted the abusive words used by Mr Bidhuri and posted: “How easily expletives roll off the tongue of this hateful “Hon” MP! Hate against Muslims has been mainstreamed like never before. How do Muslims who identify the BJP as their party coexist alongside this level of abject hatred?”
Speaking to reporters, Mr Abdullah said: “If he had called us terrorists, we are used to it. But he said this against all Muslims. It makes us very angry. It just shows their mindset against Muslims. New parliament, but old mindset.”
Opposition MPs from Mohua Moitra to Asaduddin Owaisi condemned the words. On Wednesday, when the women’s reservation bill was being discussed in the Lok Sabha, Mr Bidhuri was accused by Opposition members of heckling DMK MP Kanimozhi even before she could begin her speech.