BJP MP Nishikant Dubey
War of words erupted between BJP and TMC MPs during Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT meet when BJP MP Nishikant Dubey's complained that Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra had allegedly called him a "Bihari Gunda" thrice. It only got better when the chairman of the committee, Shashi Tharoor, said that no such meeting was held in first place. BJP leaders on Wednesday boycotted the IT committee meeting and refused to sign the attendance register.
"TMC is allergic to all the Hindi-speaking people. That's why they called me 'Bihari Gunda'. This is an attack on Bihar's pride. I have submitted all the facts to the Speaker. She (Mahua Moitra) should apologise," Dubey said on Wednesday. The BJP leader has taken his complaint to Speaker Om Birla.
However, Mahua Moitra has denied the allegation, saying she is accused of using the slur during a meeting that never took place and Dubey was not present.
He also posted a tweet "The way your MP abused me using the words Bihar goonda, your party's hatred towards north Indians and Hindi-speaking people has been exposed before the country." The BJP MP has even tagged Trinamool chief and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in his tweet.
Moitra responded in a tweet: "Am a bit amused by charges of name-calling. IT meeting did not happen because NO quorum - members did not attend. How can I call someone a name who was not even present!! Check attendance sheet!" The Trinamool MP's also tagged Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor, Karti Chidambaram and Nasir Hussain and another Trinamool MP, Nadimul Haq in her tweet.
Reacting to the entire episode, Bihar LoP Tejashwi Yadav said, "It is saddening if someone has said such a thing. One must refrain from making such comments.
Confirming that there was no meeting Tharoor said, "There couldn't be a committee meeting yesterday because 10 people who were physically present chose not to sign register to deny us a quorum. There was no quorum & no meeting. How can I tell you about a meeting that never happened? I'm completely unaware. If somebody allegedly said something at a meet that never took place to somebody who was not there, how am I to be concerned about it? He did not sign the register, how do we know he's there?"
"No constituted procedure followed in introducing Privilege Motion. It requires Speaker to get House's consent & 25 members to stand & support. It wasn't done. Therefore the Privilege Motion has no validity whatsoever," he added.
The meeting of the committee to discuss the Pegasus scandal, involving allegations of Israeli Pegasus spyware allegedly used to snoop on opposition politicians, two Union Ministers, and 40 journalists, was canceled because there weren't enough members.
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