The Evening Wrap: Opposition seeks BJP MP Bidhuri’s suspension for using communal slurs in Lok Sabha

Crude and communally charged slurs in Hindi to target Muslims were used by BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri on the floor of the Lok Sabha against Bahujan Samaj Party MP Kunwar Danish Ali late on Thursday evening, creating a political storm. Though Speaker Om Birla warned Bidhuri that strict action will be taken if such behaviour is repeated and the words were expunged from the record, Opposition MPs are firm in their demand that Bidhuri be suspended from the Lok Sabha. As the storm broke, BJP served a show cause notice to Bidhuri, asking him why he should not be suspended from the party for the unparliamentary language used by him on the floor of the House. He has been given 15 days to respond. Meanwhile, Ali himself wrote to Speaker Birla, citing rules 222, 226, 227 of the conduct of business rules demanding that Bidhuri’s remarks be referred to the privileges committee of the Lok Sabha. Listing the objectionable words used against him by Bidhuri, Mr Ali wrote, “this is most unfortunate and the fact that this happened in the new Parliament and under your leadership as Speaker is truly heartbreaking for me as a minority member of this great nation and an elected member of Parliament,” he wrote in his letter, a copy of which is available with The Hindu. Addressing a presser after submitting his letter, Ali said, “We claim to be the mother of democracy but in the very temple of democracy, the kind of language used against an elected MP, like mullah, katwah (circumcised one) and terrorist were used, my soul was shaken, I haven’t been able to sleep since last night,” he said. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s expressions of regret right after the communal slurs were used were “insufficient” and that Bidhuri be suspended from the Lok Sabha. Bidhuri made these remarks during a discussion on Chandrayaan-3 in the Lok Sabha late on Thursday evening. He was delivering his speech and during an exchange on some objections raised by Ali and other opposition MPs, Mr Bidhuri let loose a barrage of crude communal slurs in Hindi, with former Union minister Dr Harshavardhan seen smiling sitting behind him in the House. Dr Harshvardhan in a post on “X” later defended himself stating that: “While I was no doubt witness to the jugglery of words being thrown at each other (which in fact the entire House was), the truth of the matter is that in the chaos that existed, I could not clearly hear what was being said.” Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh who was in chair at the time of the exchange said that the House was in disorder and that drowned BJP MP Bidhuri’s speech. “When Danish Ali alerted me about what all Bidhuri had said, I immediately gave a ruling to expunge the unparliamentary words. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also tendered an apology on behalf of Bidhuri,” he said. He added that the decision to suspend Bidhuri is call to be taken by the Speaker Birla. “Although as a parliamentarian, I can say that this is not the first time Bidhuri has used objectionable language in the House,” he said. Opposition MPs from Mohua Moitra to Asaduddin Owaisi condemned the words and asked that Bidhuri be suspended from the Lok Sabha. On Wednesday, when the women’s reservation Bill was being discussed in the Lok Sabha, Bidhuri was accused by Opposition members of heckling DMK MP Kanimozhi even before she could begin her speech. India slams China for denying accreditation to sportspersons from Arunachal Pradesh for Asian Games India has lodged strong protests with China over its denial of accreditation for the Asian Games in Hangzhou to some of the Indian sportspersons from Arunachal Pradesh, saying the action violates the spirit of the sporting event and rules governing its conduct. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said as a mark of India’s protest against China’s discriminatory behaviour, Union Information and Broadcasting and Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur has cancelled his scheduled visit to China for the Games. Bagchi said India reserves the right to take “suitable measures to safeguard our interests”. “The government of India has learnt that the Chinese authorities have, in a targeted and pre-meditated manner, discriminated against some of the Indian sportspersons from the state of Arunachal Pradesh by denying them accreditation and entry to the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China,” Bagchi said. “In line with our long-standing and consistent position, India firmly rejects differential treatment of Indian citizens on the basis of domicile or ethnicity. Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India,” he said. Bagchi said a strong protest has been lodged in New Delhi and Beijing against China’s “deliberate and selective obstruction” of some of our sportspersons. Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast Why Ultra Processed Foods are deadly and how you can avoid them A new study from Nutrition Advocacy for Public Interest (NAPI), titled The Junk Push: Rising UItra Processed Food Consumption In India: Policy, Politics and Reality, paints a grim picture of misleading marketing, rising consumption of Ultra Processed Foods (UPFs) in India, and the role of UPFs in triggering an epidemic non-communicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension, among others, with children being particularly vulnerable. To find out how to identify harmful UPFs and why they are a public health concern, we speak with Dr Arun Gupta. Surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada led to allegations around Sikh killing, official says The allegation of India’s involvement in the killing of a Sikh Canadian is based on surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada, including intelligence provided by a major ally, a Canadian official familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on September 21. The official said the communications involved Indian officials and Indian diplomats in Canada and that some of the intelligence was provided by a member of the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance, which includes the U.S., Britain, Australia and New Zealand, in addition to Canada. The official did not say which ally provided intelligence or give specific details of what was contained in the communications or how they were obtained. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation first reported the intelligence. Applications of Delhi riots case accused seeking probe status not maintainable, says prosecution The prosecution concluded its arguments on September 22 against the applications filed by some of the people accused of hatching the conspiracy behind the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, seeking to know the status of the probe in the case, saying those were not maintainable. Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat posted the matter on October 3 for rebuttal by the counsel for the accused applicants. During the proceedings, Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad cited a judgment and said, “A different and not less well-recognised rule, namely, where a power is given to do a certain thing in a certain way, the thing must be done in that way or not at all. Other methods of performance are necessarily forbidden.” He said this doctrine of law is settled and has been followed by the Supreme Court and all other courts consistently. “So when the right is not given to the accused in the garb of this application, they cannot design a new procedure. Therefore, the maintainability of the application goes through the roof,” Prasad said. “Unless and until they (counsel for the accused) are able to demonstrate that the application itself is maintainable, they cannot go beyond that. So I would not go beyond arguing for maintainability,” he added. Regarding whether the case is fit for further trial, Special Public Prosecutor Prasad said the prosecution would demonstrate the same before the court once the arguments on charges start. The judge asked, “If the court was to put a question about whether the case is fit for arguments on the point of charge, you are going to answer while you address the arguments on charge?” Replying in the affirmative, Special Public Prosecutor Prasad said he would “demonstrate from the chargesheet the way things have opened up and why multiple chargesheets have come and how these chargesheets are not overlapping (each other)”. “It is not that I have kept something in my back pocket. All these things I have to demonstrate to the court and I will demonstrate when I argue on charge. Today, to block the arguments on charge by way of these applications is not permissible,” he said. The counsel for one of the accused, however, said the prosecution needs to explain certain aspects before he could proceed with the rebuttal. “How can the prosecution not answer a direction of this court (passed) in May? How can it not answer a pointed question of the court – ‘Is the conspiracy even over?’.... How can the prosecution not answer the aspect of what is to happen in the trial if a supplementary chargesheet is filed? If it (supplementary chargesheet) will come (filed), what will they do about it?” he asked. Meanwhile, the judge said the court will put its queries to the prosecution and accused in the end to prevent the proceedings from becoming a question-and-answer session. At the last hearing on Tuesday, the prosecution described the applications as “frivolous, speculative and presumptive”. On September 14, applications were filed by accused Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha, seeking a direction to the investigating agency to clarify the status of its probe in the case lodged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), an anti-terror law, before arguments start on whether to frame charges. Four days later, two other accused — Meeran Haider and Athar Khan — filed separate applications. Haider wanted to know from the Delhi Police whether the investigation in the matter was concluded, while Khan sought an adjournment of the arguments on charges till the completion of the probe. The accused have been booked under the stringent UAPA and several provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the February 2020 riots, which left 53 people dead and more than 700 injured. The violence had erupted during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in a week when former US president Donald Trump was on a visit to India. Rahul Gandhi urges Centre to implement women’s reservation Bill immediately The Congress “regrets” that the UPA didn’t include separate quota for women belonging to other backward classes (OBC) and pass the women’s reservation Bill, party leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday even as he asserted that his party would carry out a caste-based census if it comes to power. Gandhi also urged the Narendra Modi government to immediately implement the women’s bill and not wait for a census or delimitation exercise. Stating that the Bill was a diversion and distraction, he said, “It may take 10 years or more to be implemented and we are not sure if it will even be. A few days ago the special session started with great fanfare, there was transition from the old building to new building. It’s a good thing, at first we didn’t know the agenda. Later, we got to know it was the women’s reservation Bill.” Stating that there were footnotes that the Bill will be implemented after Census and Delimitation, the leader said, “The Bill is a distraction from the caste census demand.” Stating that MPs are mere statues in the House, he said, “MPs don’t have any power in the law-making process.” “Officers of OBC, Adivasis and Dalits control 5% of the Budget, the Prime Minister keeps saying that he is an OBC leader, so I want him to explain why there are only three officers at the top, the first step is to find the number of OBCs through a caste census,” Gandhi said. Distribution and transfer of power to the people of India was the first step. The data from caste-census will empower the people more, he added. “When we come to power, the caste census will take place and the OBC community will be empowered and they will participate in governance,” he said. Efforts to grant 33% reservation to women in Legislative Assemblies and Lok Sabha were on by several governments since 1996. The UPA government had brought a bill, and was passed in Rajya Sabha in 2010. However, it got lapsed as it never made it to the Lok Sabha. In Brief: Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on September 22 agreed to list by mid-October a series of petitions seeking the criminalisation of marital rape. “We will list it sometime in mid-October after the Constitution Bench hearings,” Chief Justice Chandrachud addressed senior advocate Indira Jaising and advocate Karuna Nundy, who jointly mentioned the case for urgent listing. In July, Nundy had said Jaising would address the court on the issues in law. Jaising said her petition also concerned child abuse. In an earlier hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the Union, had said the case had not only legal ramifications but widespread social impact. The petitions are largely triggered by decisions from Karnataka and Delhi High Courts, requiring an authoritative pronouncement from the apex court. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 22 September 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( BJP MP Bidhuri uses communal slurs in Lok Sabha; Opposition seeks his suspension, BJP sends show cause notice [Crude and communally charged slurs in Hindi to target Muslims were used by BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri on the floor of the Lok Sabha]( against Bahujan Samaj Party MP Kunwar Danish Ali late on Thursday evening, creating a political storm. Though Speaker Om Birla warned Bidhuri that strict action will be taken if such behaviour is repeated and the words were expunged from the record, Opposition MPs are firm in their demand that Bidhuri be suspended from the Lok Sabha. As the storm broke, BJP served a show cause notice to Bidhuri, asking him why he should not be suspended from the party for the unparliamentary language used by him on the floor of the House. He has been given 15 days to respond. Meanwhile, Ali himself wrote to Speaker Birla, citing rules 222, 226, 227 of the conduct of business rules demanding that Bidhuri’s remarks be referred to the privileges committee of the Lok Sabha. Listing the objectionable words used against him by Bidhuri, Mr Ali wrote, “this is most unfortunate and the fact that this happened in the new Parliament and under your leadership as Speaker is truly heartbreaking for me as a minority member of this great nation and an elected member of Parliament,” he wrote in his letter, a copy of which is available with The Hindu. Addressing a presser after submitting his letter, Ali said, “We claim to be the mother of democracy but in the very temple of democracy, the kind of language used against an elected MP, like mullah, katwah (circumcised one) and terrorist were used, my soul was shaken, I haven’t been able to sleep since last night,” he said. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s expressions of regret right after the communal slurs were used were “insufficient” and that Bidhuri be suspended from the Lok Sabha. Bidhuri made these remarks during a discussion on Chandrayaan-3 in the Lok Sabha late on Thursday evening. He was delivering his speech and during an exchange on some objections raised by Ali and other opposition MPs, Mr Bidhuri let loose a barrage of crude communal slurs in Hindi, with former Union minister Dr Harshavardhan seen smiling sitting behind him in the House. Dr Harshvardhan in a post on “X” later defended himself stating that : “While I was no doubt witness to the jugglery of words being thrown at each other (which in fact the entire House was), the truth of the matter is that in the chaos that existed, I could not clearly hear what was being said.” Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh who was in chair at the time of the exchange said that the House was in disorder and that drowned BJP MP Bidhuri’s speech. “When Danish Ali alerted me about what all Bidhuri had said, I immediately gave a ruling to expunge the unparliamentary words. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also tendered an apology on behalf of Bidhuri,” he said. He added that the decision to suspend Bidhuri is call to be taken by the Speaker Birla. “Although as a parliamentarian, I can say that this is not the first time Bidhuri has used objectionable language in the House,” he said. Opposition MPs from Mohua Moitra to Asaduddin Owaisi condemned the words and asked that Bidhuri be suspended from the Lok Sabha. On Wednesday, when the women’s reservation Bill was being discussed in the Lok Sabha, Bidhuri was accused by Opposition members of heckling DMK MP Kanimozhi even before she could begin her speech. India slams China for denying accreditation to sportspersons from Arunachal Pradesh for Asian Games [India has lodged strong protests with China over its denial of accreditation for the Asian Games in Hangzhou to some of the Indian sportspersons from Arunachal Pradesh]( saying the action violates the spirit of the sporting event and rules governing its conduct. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said as a mark of India’s protest against China’s discriminatory behaviour, Union Information and Broadcasting and Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur has cancelled his scheduled visit to China for the Games. Bagchi said India reserves the right to take “suitable measures to safeguard our interests”. “The government of India has learnt that the Chinese authorities have, in a targeted and pre-meditated manner, discriminated against some of the Indian sportspersons from the state of Arunachal Pradesh by denying them accreditation and entry to the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China,” Bagchi said. “In line with our long-standing and consistent position, India firmly rejects differential treatment of Indian citizens on the basis of domicile or ethnicity. Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India,” he said. Bagchi said a strong protest has been lodged in New Delhi and Beijing against China’s “deliberate and selective obstruction” of some of our sportspersons. Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast Why Ultra Processed Foods are deadly and how you can avoid them [A new study from Nutrition Advocacy for Public Interest (NAPI), titled The Junk Push: Rising UItra Processed Food Consumption In India: Policy, Politics and Reality, paints a grim picture of misleading marketing, rising consumption of Ultra Processed Foods (UPFs) in India]( and the role of UPFs in triggering an epidemic non-communicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension, among others, with children being particularly vulnerable. To find out how to identify harmful UPFs and why they are a public health concern, we speak with Dr Arun Gupta. Surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada led to allegations around Sikh killing, official says The[allegation of India’s involvement in the killing of a Sikh Canadian is based on surveillance of Indian diplomats]( in Canada, including intelligence provided by a major ally, a Canadian official familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on September 21. The official said the communications involved Indian officials and Indian diplomats in Canada and that some of the intelligence was provided by a member of the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance, which includes the U.S., Britain, Australia and New Zealand, in addition to Canada. The official did not say which ally provided intelligence or give specific details of what was contained in the communications or how they were obtained. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation first reported the intelligence. Applications of Delhi riots case accused seeking probe status not maintainable, says prosecution [The prosecution concluded its arguments on September 22 against the applications filed by some of the people accused of hatching the conspiracy behind the 2020 northeast Delhi riots]( seeking to know the status of the probe in the case, saying those were not maintainable. Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat posted the matter on October 3 for rebuttal by the counsel for the accused applicants. During the proceedings, Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad cited a judgment and said, “A different and not less well-recognised rule, namely, where a power is given to do a certain thing in a certain way, the thing must be done in that way or not at all. Other methods of performance are necessarily forbidden.” He said this doctrine of law is settled and has been followed by the Supreme Court and all other courts consistently. “So when the right is not given to the accused in the garb of this application, they cannot design a new procedure. Therefore, the maintainability of the application goes through the roof,” Prasad said. “Unless and until they (counsel for the accused) are able to demonstrate that the application itself is maintainable, they cannot go beyond that. So I would not go beyond arguing for maintainability,” he added. Regarding whether the case is fit for further trial, Special Public Prosecutor Prasad said the prosecution would demonstrate the same before the court once the arguments on charges start. The judge asked, “If the court was to put a question about whether the case is fit for arguments on the point of charge, you are going to answer while you address the arguments on charge?” Replying in the affirmative, Special Public Prosecutor Prasad said he would “demonstrate from the chargesheet the way things have opened up and why multiple chargesheets have come and how these chargesheets are not overlapping (each other)”. “It is not that I have kept something in my back pocket. All these things I have to demonstrate to the court and I will demonstrate when I argue on charge. Today, to block the arguments on charge by way of these applications is not permissible,” he said. The counsel for one of the accused, however, said the prosecution needs to explain certain aspects before he could proceed with the rebuttal. “How can the prosecution not answer a direction of this court (passed) in May? How can it not answer a pointed question of the court – ‘Is the conspiracy even over?’.... How can the prosecution not answer the aspect of what is to happen in the trial if a supplementary chargesheet is filed? If it (supplementary chargesheet) will come (filed), what will they do about it?” he asked. Meanwhile, the judge said the court will put its queries to the prosecution and accused in the end to prevent the proceedings from becoming a question-and-answer session. At the last hearing on Tuesday, the prosecution described the applications as “frivolous, speculative and presumptive”. On September 14, applications were filed by accused Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha, seeking a direction to the investigating agency to clarify the status of its probe in the case lodged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), an anti-terror law, before arguments start on whether to frame charges. Four days later, two other accused — Meeran Haider and Athar Khan — filed separate applications. Haider wanted to know from the Delhi Police whether the investigation in the matter was concluded, while Khan sought an adjournment of the arguments on charges till the completion of the probe. The accused have been booked under the stringent UAPA and several provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the February 2020 riots, which left 53 people dead and more than 700 injured. The violence had erupted during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in a week when former US president Donald Trump was on a visit to India. Rahul Gandhi urges Centre to implement women’s reservation Bill immediately The [Congress “regrets” that the UPA didn’t include separate quota for women belonging to other backward classes]( (OBC) and pass the women’s reservation Bill, party leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday even as he asserted that his party would carry out a caste-based census if it comes to power. Gandhi also urged the Narendra Modi government to immediately implement the women’s bill and not wait for a census or delimitation exercise. Stating that the Bill was a diversion and distraction, he said, “It may take 10 years or more to be implemented and we are not sure if it will even be. A few days ago the special session started with great fanfare, there was transition from the old building to new building. It’s a good thing, at first we didn’t know the agenda. Later, we got to know it was the women’s reservation Bill.” Stating that there were footnotes that the Bill will be implemented after Census and Delimitation, the leader said, “The Bill is a distraction from the caste census demand.” Stating that MPs are mere statues in the House, he said, “MPs don’t have any power in the law-making process.” “Officers of OBC, Adivasis and Dalits control 5% of the Budget, the Prime Minister keeps saying that he is an OBC leader, so I want him to explain why there are only three officers at the top, the first step is to find the number of OBCs through a caste census,” Gandhi said. Distribution and transfer of power to the people of India was the first step. The data from caste-census will empower the people more, he added. “When we come to power, the caste census will take place and the OBC community will be empowered and they will participate in governance,” he said. Efforts to grant 33% reservation to women in Legislative Assemblies and Lok Sabha were on by several governments since 1996. The UPA government had brought a bill, and was passed in Rajya Sabha in 2010. However, it got lapsed as it never made it to the Lok Sabha. In Brief: [Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on September 22 agreed to list by mid-October a series of petitions seeking the criminalisation of marital rape](. “We will list it sometime in mid-October after the Constitution Bench hearings,” Chief Justice Chandrachud addressed senior advocate Indira Jaising and advocate Karuna Nundy, who jointly mentioned the case for urgent listing. In July, Nundy had said Jaising would address the court on the issues in law. Jaising said her petition also concerned child abuse. In an earlier hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the Union, had said the case had not only legal ramifications but widespread social impact. The petitions are largely triggered by decisions from Karnataka and Delhi High Courts, requiring an authoritative pronouncement from the apex court. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [Sign up for free]( Today’s Top Picks [[Canada’s ‘soft’ approach for Khalistan could embolden radicals in India, say experts] Canada’s ‘soft’ approach for Khalistan could embolden radicals in India, say experts]( [[Public health advocates demand warning labels, ban on junk food ads] Public health advocates demand warning labels, ban on junk food ads]( [[Carrots over caviar | Why India’s urban young are adopting more plant-forward dining options] Carrots over caviar | Why India’s urban young are adopting more plant-forward dining options]( [[Chance for Neeraj Chopra-led India to showcase its sporting prowess at Asian Games] Chance for Neeraj Chopra-led India to showcase its sporting prowess at Asian Games]( Copyright @ 2023, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. 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