Adhir kicks up storm again, this time with remarks on PM, Shah, Nirmala
NEW DELHI: The Congress party's floor leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, was in the eye of a parliamentary storm again on Monday.
A day after suggesting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah are “intruders” as they have shifted base from Gujarat to Delhi, Chowdhury said in the House that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman should be called “Nirbala” (powerless) instead.
The BJP leaders in the Lok Sabha launched a furious protest, asking Chowdhury to apologise even as Sitharaman, during a reply speech later in the day, retorted that every woman in the BJP is “Sabala” (powerful).
This is not the first time that Chowdhury, who is leading his party in the Lok Sabha for the first time, has been in the dock over his remarks in the House.
In the previous session, during the debate on the Jammu & Kashmir reorganisation bill and the government’s resolution to scrap Article 370, he asked if the Kashmir issue is truly an internal matter — going against both the line of his party and India’s longstanding position on the dispute — and used the phrase “ganda naali” in the context of PM Modi before quickly apologising and saying that his grip over Hindi was not good.
On Monday, during his speech on the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, the Congress leader said: “Looking at your situation, at times I feel I should call you Nirbala Sitharaman instead of Nirmala Sitharaman. It is because you are unable to take the measures that you want to undertake.”
The treasury bench erupted in protest, and parliamentary affairs minister Prahlad Joshi said that Chowdhury must apologise for a personal attack on the first full-time woman finance minister of India.
Chowdhury, on Sunday, told a news agency that the government is creating such a situation in the name of National Register of Citizens (NRC) that genuine Indians are worried about their future. In this context he added: “I can even say that Amit Shah and Narendra Modi are also ghuspetiya (intruders). Their home is in Gujarat but they have come to Delhi.”
Several BJP leaders, including Joshi, Nishikant Dubey and Rajendra Agarwal, lashed out at Chowdhury over the remark. “It shows they have not realized the people’s mandate. His statement is an outright insult to the mandate of the people. This is also the manifestation of the Congress side of federalism. He is from West Bengal. He is the leader of the Congress Party. Can we call him an infiltrator?” Joshi asked.
Joshi reminded Chowdhury that Modi is the only non-congress PM who has completed one full term before returning to power with a higher mandate.
He also launched a counteroffensive, saying: “Let him understand. We are forced to draw the inference that the Congress party led by an infiltrator (apparent reference to Sonia Gandhi) will obviously perceive the others in another way.”
Chowdhury later rejected the demands for an apology, saying the BJP had attacked leaders of his party.
BJP member Bhupender Yadav raised a point of order and sought to condemn the Congress leader’s remarks. “This is not only the issue of this House or of that House”, this is a matter of dignity, Yadav said.
Yadav, who is the BJP general secretary said the House can condemn the statement, irrespective of which house the issue is related to as the comment was against the dignity of Parliament.