LS Speaker Refer to Privileges Committee BJP MP’s s Muslim Slurs after Party “Rewards” Him
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 28: A day after the BJP “rewarded” its Delhi Member of Parliament” Ramesh BIdhuri with a responsible party job in election-bound Rajasthan, the Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla referred to the Privilege Committee of the House the complaints against him for his communal slurs on the floor of Parliament against a Muslim MP.
Mr Bidhuri, while participating in a discussion on India’s successful Chandrayaan-3 mission during the special session of Parliament last week had abused the Bahujan Samaj party MP Danish Ali and used communal slurs against the entire Muslim community. While the defence minister Rajnath Singh had apologised to the House for Bidhuri’s unparliamentary language, the BJP except issuing a show cause notice took no other action for his mismehaviour on the floor of the House.
The guilty MP himself was unapologetic and his party colleague Nishikant Dubey had claimed that Danish Ali had “provoked” Bidhuri to blurt out the communal slurs. Despite Ali denying having said anything to provoke Bidhuri which would all be proved from the House records, the BJP stuck to its allegation of Ali using provocative language against Bidhuri.
Bidhuri attended a meeting of the BJP in Jaipur on Wednesday which was chaired by the Rajasthan party chef CP Joshi and he was “rewarded” as in-charge of four state Assembly seats in Tonk district in which one of the seats is held by the prominent Congress leader Sachin Pilot.
The party sources said Bidhuri was made in-charge of Tonk to ensure consolidation of Hindu votes in favour of the BJP nominees since the district has fairly high percentage of Muslim voters, which could be as high as 30 per cent in some of the seats. The party is hoping that being from the Gurjar community, he can help get votes in the district’s four seats including Pilot’s seat.
The speaker’s action referring the complaints to the Privileges Committee headed by BJP MP Sunil Kumar Singh, was disclosed by Mr Dubey who credited the BJP for action taken against Bidhuri. In a post on X, Mr Dubey thanked the Speaker for referring the matter to the committee. “It was possible because the BJP has a majority in Lok Sabha,” he said, as he cited several previous incidents to assert that no committee was formed to probe these issues and nor was anyone punished.
In this context, Mr. Dubey alleged that the RJD-JD(U)-Congress members were engaged in a fight involving shoes and microphones in 2006, Sonia Gandhi was involved in an incident in 2012 besides the commotion and injuries to parliamentarians in 2014 during the creation of Telangana as a separate State.
While Independent MP Kapil Sibal lashed out at the BJP for rewarding hate, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra posted on X, “Knew it! @rameshbidhuri rewarded for calling Muslim MP ****** & ***** in Lok Sabha. How does showcaused person be given new role by @BJP4India? @narendramodi ji – is this your Sneha Yatra for minorities, your love outreach?”
A distraught Mr Ali had on Tuesday released footage (from Parliament) of that day, in which he is responding angrily to Mr Bidhuri’s outburst. The clip was released to counter BJP lawmakers’ claims the communal slurs flung at him were because of casteist slurs used by him against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the 33-second clip shared on X, a furious Mr Ali is seen and heard defending himself after Ramesh Bidhuri’s “abuses and extreme provocation.” “What (is he) saying? Can any terrorist enter into this House? He must apologise… yeh kya hain? How can he be allowed to say this?” he demands of the Congress who was the temporary Chair.
“… I didn’t utter a single word that could harm the sanctity of the temple of democracy. Even I didn’t repeat what Ramesh Bidhuri said about me and my community…” Mr Ali wrote on X. Mr Bidhuri has not yet commented on this row; he has only said the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who warned him of “strict action” if he repeats such behaviour, will rule on the matter.
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