New Delhi: Reports from Thursday indicate that BJP member Ramesh Bidhuri's use of offensive language against BSP's Danish Ali has been submitted to the Privileges Committee by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
Ali and several other opposition MPs, including Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and DMK's Kanimozhi, wrote to the Speaker seeking action against Bidhuri. Some BJP parliamentarians, like Nishikant Dubey, said the BSP member "incited" the South Delhi MP when he was speaking in the House, and urged the Chair to look into this as well.
According to our sources, Birla has forwarded all of these concerns to BJP MP Sunil Kumar Singh, who chairs the Privileges Committee.
On September 22, during a discussion in the Lok Sabha about the achievement of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, Bidhuri made some offensive statements towards BSP member Danish Ali that were afterwards scrubbed from the record.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who was in attendance, apologised to the House for the behaviour of a member of the ruling party.
After a video of Bidhuri's statements went viral and sparked outrage, opposition parties rallied around Ali, and the Lok Sabha Speaker took "serious note" and warned him of "strict action" if such behaviour was repeated in the future.
The BJP had a similar show-cause notice issued against him.
In a letter to the Speaker, Ali called Bidhuri's remarks "hate speech" and requested an investigation by the Privileges Committee.
Most of the opposition parties also sent letters to Birla demanding that he do something about the situation.
On the other hand, certain BJP lawmakers like Dubey have claimed that Ali incited Bidhuri by making extremely offensive comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Dubey strongly criticised Bidhuri, but he also suggested the Speaker check into Ali's actions. The sentiment was shared by other BJP legislators.
On Thursday, Dubey expressed his appreciation to the Speaker for sending the topic to the committee by posting on X.
He claimed, "It was possible because the BJP has a majority in Lok Sabha," before listing several incidences and claiming that no committee had been constituted to investigate them or that anyone responsible had been punished.
In this regard, Dubey said that in 2006, members of the RJD, JD(U), and Congress fought over shoes and microphones, that in 2012, Sonia Gandhi was involved in an incident, and that in 2014, with the establishment of Telangana as a separate state, there was commotion and injuries to legislators.—inputs from Agencies