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While the opposition rose above partisan lines supporting Women Reservation Bill passing it unanimously, a member of the ruling party showed his hidden contempt for a community by his spoken words.

Dr Satish Misra

On September 21, an unprecedented sordid and utterly shameful saga was witnessed in the people’s house of the newly inaugurated Parliament complex during the ‘Special Session’ when BJP MP from South Delhi Ramesh Bidhuri hurled toxic communal slur against a fellow MP from Bahujan Samaj Party Danish Ali which was seen and heard by millions despite objectionable words being expunged from the official records by an order of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

One of the most disappointing rather tragic aspect of the sordid episode was that while the BJP MP was using communally charges invectives against the Muslim MP, other senior members of the ruling party Ravi Shankar Prasad and Harsh Vardhan , who have held senior positions in the Modi government, were seen laughing during the abusive drama.

Use of such a filthy and gutter level language laced with communal innuendos by a parliamentarian of the ruling party in the independent history of the country is a sad commentary on claims of a ‘New India’ that are repeated by the top leadership including Prime Minister Narendra Modi every other day.

The Prime Minister had called for a new chapter in parliamentary history, and had exhorted members to “forget all past bitterness”, as they moved into the sparkling new building on September 19. “Whatever we are going to do in this new Parliamentary building, it should be inspiration to every citizen in the country”, he had stressed. But it seems, leader’s words had fallen on deaf ears of many of his party colleagues particularly that of Bidhuri.

While the opposition rose above partisan lines supporting Women Reservation Bill passing it unanimously, a member of the ruling party showed his hidden contempt for a community by his spoken words.

What is noteworthy that incident, which a glaring black spot on the rich democratic traditions of India that is Bharat, has happened during the rule of BJP whose leaders are never tired of preaching discipline to others.

One had expected that Speaker Birla would show alacrity in taking action against Bidhuri particularly in the backdrop of his repeated emphasis on decorum, decency and discipline in the house. Birla, custodian of the people’s house, has mainly held opposition MPs of the popular house guilty for disruptions, unruly behaviour and frequent adjournments of the house in the past. He has even suspended members of the house for their un-parliamentary acts and has resorted to this step in 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023 in which victims have been mainly from the Congress party while one Lok Sabha MP from Aam Admi Party has also faced Speaker’s wrath.

Though Birla is said to have taken a “serious note” of certain objectionable comments of the culprit and has also warned Bidhuri of “strict action” if such behaviour is repeated in the future but what action would be taken in his present demeanour is yet to be known.

Even as the majority of the opposition parties including INDIA have demanded action against the erring MP and have asked the Speaker to refer the issue to the Privilege Committee, the ruling establishment has begun to resort to its usual tricks and ways to divert focus from the main incident. The BJP has fielded several spokespersons to explain away the sordid episode and they have stooped to new lows by accusing the one who was at the receiving end of provoking the incident. A campaign has also been launched on social media platforms to show that Bidhuri was provoked by Ali which forced him using abusive and demeaning words.

Two MPs of the ruling party, namely Nishikant Dubey from Godda constituency in Jharkhand and Ravi Kishan from Gorakhur constituency in Uttar Pradesh, have written letters to the Speaker demanding investigation into the “unsavoury” conduct and behavior of the BSP MP Ali. Dubey has accused Ali of giving a “running commentary “ during Bidhuri’s speech in the Lok Sabha on the said day and making remarks aimed at instigating him to lose his composure.

Ravi Kishan has made a case against Danish Ali in his letter by claiming that the BSP MP was a habitual offender recalling an alleged incident of December 9 last year when the Gorakhpur MP was tabling a private member bill during which the BSP MP indulged in “unparliamentary acts”.

Though the BJP has officially served a show cause notice to Bidhuri for his choice of unparliamentary language against Danish Ali which was to show to the world that the party is committed to maintain decorum and civility in public discourse but if the saffron party would go beyond words is highly doubtful.

Notably, this is not the first time that Ramesh Bidhuri has stirred controversy with his choice of language. In May 2019, during a rally in Delhi’s Mehrauli, he referred to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as a “pimp.” Bidhuri’s words during the rally were aimed squarely at Kejriwal, with him saying, “Abey, ye Kejriwal bhi b****a hai. Ye kab tak rokega? (Kejriwal is a pimp. How long will he be able to stop the case?)?”

The party had then issued a show cause notice to its party MP but no action followed and show cause notice was buried under sands of time.

Sequence of different stages of the entire episode which includes silence of both Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah indicate that the ruling dispensation has no regret or bad conscience for the criminality of the party MP and is only keen to bury the incident by creating noise without action.

While silence of Modi-Shah duo could possibly be explained that the two are more bothered or concerned with the political fortunes of their party but Birla’s inaction is unpardonable because he is expected to be non-partisan after being elected to the Chair and it his responsibility to uphold the dignity of Parliament. He seems to be failing in his duty that has been bestowed upon him by the country’s Constitution.

मीडिया मैप न्यूज़ परिवार की ओर से महात्मा गाँधी और लाल बहादुर शास्त्री जी की जयंती पर श्रद्धांजलि

2 Oct 2024

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New Delhi, 26, September 2023

While the opposition rose above partisan lines supporting Women Reservation Bill passing it unanimously, a member of the ruling party showed his hidden contempt for a community by his spoken words.

Dr Satish Misra