Bidhuri's remarks hate speech, will quit LS if action not taken: Danish Ali

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Danish Ali on Friday said he would quit his Lok Sabha membership if no action was taken against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Ramesh Bidhuri for the religious slurs he subjected Ali to in the Lok Sabha during a discussion on Thursday.

Ali termed Bidhuri's comments ‘hate speech’, asking Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, in a letter, to take the ‘incident seriously’ as this was ‘the first attack on parliamentary democracy in the new Parliament building’.

"Shri Ramesh Bidhuri must be punished according to the rules to save the dignity of the House," Ali said.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla took "serious note" of the objectionable remarks made by Bidhuri in the House, and warned him of ‘strict action’ if such behaviour is repeated in the future, officials said. The Speaker ordered that Bidhuri's objectionable comments be expunged from the records of the day's proceedings. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also expressed regret for Bidhuri's remarks.

The BJP issued a showcause notice to Bidhuri, the party's South Delhi MP, on Friday after the clip of his objectionable remarks directed at Ali during a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission went viral on social media with thousands expressing their disgust at what Bidhuri could be heard as saying. His party colleagues, Harsh Vardhan and Ravi Shankar Prasad, sitting close to Bidhuri and seen laughing at the comments in the video clip, said they couldn't hear the remarks clearly in the commotion.  

"This is nothing less than hate speech. This is hate speech on the floor of the House. Hate speeches were being made outside Parliament, but now hate speech has been delivered on the floor of the House by a BJP MP," Ali told Business Standard. The BSP MP from Amroha demanded Bidhuri's suspension. "Where is this kind of behaviour and culture taught? He (Bidhuri) is a senior MP. Modi ji's two former cabinet colleagues, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Harsh Vardhan, were laughing and thumping desks. This behaviour has been witnessed by people in India's new Parliament's first special session," the BSP MP said. "Are the BJP MPs learning hate speeches in RSS shakhas or in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new laboratory of new India?" he asked. 

Former Union law minister Prasad said he did not support any indecent comment. Harsh Vardhan alleged that some people with vested interests had "dragged" his name into the row and claimed that he could not "clearly hear" what was being said due to the "chaos" in the House at that time.