Centre, Opposition lock horns after Smriti, Sonia face-off in House | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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Centre, Opposition lock horns after Smriti, Sonia face-off in House

BySmriti Kak Ramachandran and Saubhadra Chatterji, New Delhi
Jul 29, 2022 12:30 AM IST

A bitter verbal face-off between Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Union minister Smriti Irani on the floor of the Lok Sabha on Thursday ratcheted up political tensions with the government and the Opposition presenting contrasting versions of the confrontation.

A bitter verbal face-off between Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Union minister Smriti Irani on the floor of the Lok Sabha on Thursday ratcheted up political tensions with the government and the Opposition presenting contrasting versions of the confrontation.

Union minister Smriti Irani and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. (ANI)
Union minister Smriti Irani and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. (ANI)

The dramatic events came minutes after a comment by Congress floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury – who called President Droupadi Murmu “rashtrapatni”, a reference to her gender, but also a corruption of  the Hindi word for president – sparked an uproar and a wave of disruptions, forcing an adjournment, one of several seen through the day in both Houses of Parliament. As the Lower House was adjourned soon after 12pm amid loud demands by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that Chowdhury and Gandhi apologise for the remark, Gandhi walked over to the government benches up to BJP member Rama Devi, who was earlier presiding over the Lok Sabha.

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According to opposition members who witnessed the exchange between the two leaders, Gandhi told Devi that Chowdhury had already apologised for his remarks and that the BJP, which had also asked for Gandhi to apologise to the President, should not drag her name into the controversy.

“Just as she was returning, a group of BJP MPs, including Smriti Irani, shouted at  her and said that she should also apologise for the remarks against the President… At that point, Gandhi told Irani not to speak to her,” said a leader present during the exchange who asked not to be named.

The BJP contended that Gandhi was rude to Irani and other women leaders from the BJP, and spoke to them in a threatening and arrogant tone.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who earlier led a group of women BJP members in protest against Gandhi and the Congress, said: “Some of our Lok Sabha MPs felt threatened when Sonia Gandhi came up to our senior leader Rama Devi to find out what was happening, and when one of our members approached her, she said, ‘you don’t talk to me’.”

“Instead of tendering an apology, she (Gandhi) is misleading by claiming that Adhir Chowdhury has already apologised. Instead of an apology, she is resorting to threats,” the minister added. Devi told PTI that Gandhi sought to know why her name was dragged into the issue. “What is my fault? ” Gandhi reportedly asked Devi, the member from Sheohar in Bihar. The BJP MP said she told Gandhi that her fault was that she had selected Chowdhury as the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha. The Congress and other Opposition leaders contended that Gandhi was surrounded by a group of slogan-shouting BJP members.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra rubbished the allegations by BJP leaders and asked how a 75-year-old woman in a face mask could “intimidate” anyone.  “We got Mrs Gandhi out. They had all surrounded her and were shouting at her. How can a 75-year-old in a mask be intimidating to anyone?” Moitra said.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “Sonia Gandhi was talking to a BJP MP, Rama Devi. Smriti Irani surrounded Sonia Gandhi and called her abusive words in a very derogatory tone. When Sonia ji politely told her that ‘I am not talking to you, I am talking to another MP’, Smriti Irani shouted, ‘you don’t know  me,  who I am?’.”

The Congress later sought  Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla’s intervention in sending the matter to the Privileges Committee and said Gandhi was “subjected to the outrageous misdemeanour by the ruling party MPs”, without naming anyone.

“Things had come to such a pass that Smt Sonia Gandhi could have been injured seriously.... now we seek your intervention in sending the matter to the privilege committee  as the unruly behaviour of those alleged members may warrant the suspension from the House,” said the letter by the Congress parliamentary party, signed by Chowdhury.

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