Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 9: A huge controversy has broken out over the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi gesturing a “flying kiss” towards the members of the treasury benches in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday and the BJP women MPs lodged a complaint with the speaker Om Birla demanding action against him for “insulting women” and more particularly the union women and child welfare minister Smriti Irani.
Irani, who followed Gandhi in addressing the House on the no-confidence motion in the Narendra Modi government, alleged that Gandhi blew a flying kiss while leaving parliament after his speech on the No-Confidence Motion. “Only a misogynist man can blow a flying kiss to parliament that seats women MPs,” Smriti Irani said, referring to Rahul Gandhi – who was reinstated in parliament on Monday. Mr Gandhi’s action “lacked dignity”, she charged.
BJP women MPs have complained to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla over Gandhi’s alleged “indecent gesture” accusing him of insulting women. Ms Irani later told reporters that parliament has never witnessed such “misogyny.” “Never before has the “misogynistic behaviour” of a man been so visible in parliament. When the House of the people – where laws are made to protect the dignity of women – during the course of a session stands witness to a man’s misogyny, my question is should he be brought to task?,” she asked while speaking to reporters.
BJP MP Poonam Mahajan, referring to the alleged flying kiss, said Rahul Gandhi’s gesture at the end of the speech shows his upbringing is not “correct.” “All those sitting in the press gallery could also see what he did. His gesture was very shameful. When you are a member of parliament, you should know what kind of language to be used,” she said.
Congress sources, however, said that Rahul Gandhi’s gesture wasn’t directed towards any particular member. Rahul Gandhi kicked off the second day of the No-Confidence Debate in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Launching scathing attack on the BJP government at the centre, Gandhi said, “Manipur has been split in two. Government’s politics has murdered India in the state. You are not protectors of Bharat Mata, you are her killers.” “To listen to the nation’s voice, we will have to give up on arrogance and hatred,” he said.
Irani slammed the Congress MP over his accusation that the government had “killed Bharat Mata (India)” in Manipur. She said it’s the first time when someone has made such a statement. “This is the first time that someone talked about the murder of India, and Congress leaders were thumping desks,” Irani said. “You are not India because you define corruption in India, you define incompetence,” the BJP MP said.
Commenting on the controversy, the Congress said, “Rahul Gandhi gestured towards the treasury benches as he was leaving with a flying kiss as he had called them brothers and sisters. He did not direct it towards any particular minister or MP, and not at all towards Union Minister Smriti Irani.”
.Union Minister and BJP leader Shobha Karandlaje said several women MPs have filed a complaint with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against Mr Gandhi. “This is inappropriate and indecent behaviour of a Member. Senior members are telling that this has never happened in the history of Parliament of India… What is this behaviour? What kind of a leader is he? We have complained to the Speaker to take CCTV footage of it and take action against him. This is what we have demanded,” she added.
“Rahul Gandhi misbehaved with women members inside Parliament by giving a flying kiss. After his speech, he wanted to go out as Smriti Irani ji started speaking. We, the BJP members, asked him to sit and listen to her. But Rahul Gandhi blew a flying kiss to Smriti ji and all the women members and walked away,” Karandlaje said. The complaint to Speaker Om Birla was signed by more than 20 women parliamentarians, including Karandlaje and Union minister Darshana Jardosh.
“While Pradhan Mantri ji treated the Parliament House like a temple, he [Gandhi] behaved like this. He did not want to listen to anyone…he said what he had to say. He was leaving, he showed the victory sign and blew a flying kiss,” Jardosh said. Sources in the Lok Sabha secretariat said the videos from Sansad TV were not clear but the matter would be looked into.
Women MPs from the Congress, meanwhile, defended Gandhi and questioned Irani’s silence on Manipur despite being the women and child development minister. Congress MP Geeta Koda said the BJP had a habit of distorting issues to divert people’s attention and defended Gandhi, saying that he could never be insulting to women. “It is sad and unfortunate that she did not utter a single word even after seeing the video of women being paraded naked. We all have a responsibility to raise the issues of women but the minister did not say anything,” Congress MP S Jothimani said.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi hit out at the BJP over the controversy and said the saffron party was “so used to the hatred that they cannot accept the gesture of love.”
“I was at the visitors’ gallery…I saw when he was leaving, he did it as a gesture of affection. He did not say or do it for just women. It was just a genuine gesture…like he’s been called Mohabbat Ki Dukaan,” the Shiv Sena MP said.