New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday demanded an apology from the Prime Minister for his “insulting” reference to Renuka Chowdhury, while the MP said she would file a privilege motion against Union minister Kiren Rijiju for posting on Twitter a video of Narendra Modi’s comments about her. “This is highly objectionable and I am going to file for privilege,” she told reporters here on Thursday, after Rijiju posted the video.
Senior Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said at a briefing here that Modi’s remark on Wednesday was condemnable and he should apologise for it. He said the Prime Minister had crossed the line of political discourse with his language and the “outrageous” reference. “A women Parliamentarian (was) laughing at his language of claims,” he said, referring to Chowdhury's laughter when Modi said in the Rajya Sabha that the BJP-led government in 1998 had mooted the idea of Aadhaar. “What was alluded to is shameful. We condemn it. He should apologise,” he told reporters. Sharma said one of his ministers had posted something “highly objectionable” on social media and questioned why the Prime Minister was silent about it.
Meanwhile, The BJP accused the Congress of devaluing Parliament. BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav hit back at the Congress following its members protests in the Rajya Sabha over the Prime Minister’s dig at Chowdhury in the House. The conduct of some Congress members in Parliament is in violation of parliamentary traditions and the party has been “devaluing” constitutional intuitions for some time. The response of the Congress to this is wrong, he said.
