Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 21: The Congress on Tuesday submitted a privilege notice against the Prime Minister Narenda Modi for casting aspersions on the Lok Sabha members, while the party president Mallikarjun Kharge called Modi a “terrorist” but quickly clarified that the Prime Minister was “terrorising people and political parties” and not someone wielding guns like a terrorist.
At a press conference on Tuesday Mr Kharge branded Mr Modi a “terrorist” and when a reporter asked for context behind the assessment, the Congress chief clarified that what he meant was that “PM Modi is terrorising people and political parties” adding he never called the Prime Minister a terrorist.
But the condemnation from the BJP was swift and sharp, calling the Congress an “Urban Naxal Party.”
In Delhi, the Congress general secretary KC Venugopal on Tuesday submitted a privilege notice to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that the PM committed a breach of privilege during his address to the nation last week by “casting aspersions” on members of the Lower House
Mr Kharge made the remark against Mr Modi while questioning the AIADMK’s choice of BJP as an alliance partner for the Tamil Nadu polls. “How these AIADMK people, who themselves put the photo of Annadurai, how can they join Modi? He is a terrorist. His party won’t believe in equality and justice. These people are joining with them; it means they are weakening democracy, they are weakening the philosophy of Annadurai, Kamaraj, Periyar, Kaliagnar, Baba Saheb Ambedkar,” Mr Kharge said. “The Congress-DMK alliance will continue to deliver welfare, inclusive growth, quality, education, accessible healthcare,” he underlined.
The Congress leader’s comments came two days after PM Modi, in an address to the nation, accused the Congress and other opposition parties of “committing foeticide” for defeating a bill on women’s reservation in Parliament and state assemblies.
When asked by a journalist “Can you please put the statement in a context,” Mr Kharge clarified, “No, no. He (PM Modi) is terrorising people and political parties. I never said he is a terrorist…What I mean, I want to clarify, is that Modi always threatens. The institutions like ED, I-T and CBI are in his hands. He wants to take delimitation also into his hands. Therefore I said, in that context, he is terrorising people and political parties. I never said he is a terrorist,” Kharge said.
The BJP was not impressed. “The Congress is an “Urban Naxal” party; that is why Kharge employs abusive language against the Prime Minister. This is not the first time this has happened. The repeated use of venomous rhetoric, including death threats, makes one thing abundantly clear: the Congress party’s “remote control” lies in the hands of anti-national forces,” BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said in a video message.
Calling it an insult to the Prime Minister, Union Minister Piyush Goyal demanded that the Congress apologise for the remarks. “I feel ashamed that the Congress and the DMK have stooped so low that they are insulting the Prime Minister who is democratically elected by the people of India, by calling him a terrorist. Rahul Gandhi and MK Stalin must apologise for this downright insult to the Prime Minister as well as the people of India who have voted him in,” Goyal posted on X.
“The Congress and DMK have humiliated 140 crore Indians, including our 8 crore Tamil brothers and sisters, with this statement. This unholy alliance is effectively calling Indians terrorists by targeting the Prime Minister. Such personal attacks against the PM won’t reverse their electoral fate that has already been sealed by the anger of the people who have suffered their misrule,” the Minister added.
Mr Venugopal in a letter to Mr Birla said, “I hereby give a notice of question of privilege under provisions of Rule 222 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha against the Prime Minister of India for having cast aspersions on Members of Lok Sabha during his address/speech telecast on 18 April, 2026.”
On April 18, the Prime Minister addressed the nation on national television, following the defeat of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill 2026 in Lok Sabha on April 17, which failed to secure the required two-thirds majority as required under the provisions of Article 368 of the Constitution, he said.
In the 29-minute address to the nation, the Prime Minister criticised opposition parties for blocking the bill and made direct reflections on the voting pattern of Members of the Opposition and attributed motives to them, he said. This matter deserves to be treated with the utmost seriousness, as questioning an elected representative performing his duty is not merely a personal assault but a direct affront to the authority of Parliament and to the democratic rights of the people of India, Mr Venugopal said.
“I urge you, the Hon’ble Speaker, to take immediate and decisive steps to uphold the sanctity of Parliament and the constitutional protections afforded to its members, so that such violations are neither ignored nor repeated,” he said.
Tagging Mr Venugopal’s letter, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, “My senior colleague in the Lok Sabha, K.C. Venugopal, has issued a notice of question of privilege against the Prime Minister for his so-called address to the nation following the defeat of his nefarious designs in the Lok Sabha by something he did not expect—absolute Opposition unity and solidarity.”
A sitting PM’s address to the nation has always been reserved for the overriding purpose of national unity and confidence-building, he said. “The Prime Minister’s unabashed partisan demagoguery during this address — with 59 different attacks on the Congress party – will be yet another permanent stain on his record as Prime Minister,” Mr Ramesh said.
The Congress also recalled Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi’s earlier letters to Mr Modi demanding immediate implementation of women’s reservation in legislatures. But the Modi government deliberately delayed it only to link it with delimitation.
Mr Ramesh said, “The Congress Party’s stance has been unflinching and unchanged. It is the Modi Government that slept on this demand and has then tried to delay it by linking it to delimitation,” Mr Ramesh said on X and shared Gandhi’s letter to the PM.
In her letter in 2017, Sonia Gandhi had said, “I am writing to request you to take advantage of your majority in the Lok Sabha to now get the Women’s Reservation Bill passed in the Lower House as well. The Congress Party has always and will continue to support this legislation which will be a significant step forward in the empowerment of women.” “You may recall that it was, in fact, the Congress Party and its late leader Shri Rajiv Gandhi who first mooted the provision for reservation for women in panchayats and nagarpalikas in the Constitution Amendment Bills which the Opposition parties thwarted in the Rajya Sabha in 1989 but later were passed by both Houses of Parliament in 1993 becoming the 73rd and 74th Amendments,” she had said.
In another post, Ramesh said Rahul Gandhi, as Congress President, had written to the Prime Minister on July 16, 2018, demanding the immediate implementation of women’s reservation. “Eight years later, the Prime Minister — keen to delay the implementation of reservations by linking it to delimitation — is still to act on this demand,” Mr Ramesh said.
He also shared Rahul Gandhi’s letter to the PM from 2018, in which he had requested support to ensure the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the then-upcoming monsoon session of Parliament.
“As you are aware, the Women’s Reservation Bill, passed by the Rajya Sabha on the 9th of March, 2010, has been stalled on one pretext or the other, in the Lok Sabha, for over eight years now. When this bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha with the support of the BJP, the then leader of the Opposition, Arun Jaitley ji, called the passage of the bill ‘historic and momentous’.
“Since then, while the Congress party has been unwavering in its commitment to the bill, the BJP appears to have had second thoughts, even though this was one of its key promises in its 2014 manifesto,” Rahul Gandhi had said.
“Mr Prime Minister, in many of your public rallies you have spoken about your passion for empowering women and involving them more meaningfully in public life. What better way to demonstrate your commitment to the cause of women, than by offering your unconditional support to the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill? And what better time than the upcoming session of Parliament? Any further delay will make it impossible to implement before the next general elections,” Rahul Gandhi had said.
“On the issue of empowering our women, let us stand together, rise above party politics, and send India a message that we believe the time for change has come. Women must take their rightful place in our state legislatures and in Parliament, where they are at present abysmally represented,” he had said in his letter to Mr Modi.
The Congress on Monday had said the striking down of the Modi Government’s delimitation push in the garb of women’s quota was a defeat of “bulldozer politics” and that the Centre’s agenda was not women’s reservation but Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “preservation.”
The Opposition party had also demanded that the Centre immediately implement the women’s quota on the existing Lok Sabha strength by bringing a bill in Parliament’s Monsoon Session or May-end.