- Thursday, February 27, 2025
The women parliamentarians demanded strict action against Gandhi while lodging a formal complaint with Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN opposition leader Rahul Gandhi found himself in the middle of another storm on Wednesday (9), just two days after he was reinstated as a parliamentarian following his four-month-long disqualification after a conviction in a criminal defamation case, as his women counterparts from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused him of blowing a ‘flying kiss’ in the Lok Sabha or Lower House of the parliament.
They accused the 53-year-old Gandhi of insulting women MPs and demanded strict action while lodging a formal complaint with Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla.
The incident happened on a day when fierce debate was underway in the parliament over a no-confidence motion against the Modi government over the situation in the north-eastern state of Manipur.
SMRITI IRANI STOOPS TO NEW LOW:
BJP women MPs signed a letter written to Loksabha Speaker Complaining Rahul Gandhi gave Flying Kiss to Smriti Irani.!
?Smriti Irani is losing Amethi in a Record Margin? Hence the desperation attempt?#ShamelessSmriti pic.twitter.com/znQh17paHZ
— Gururaj Anjan (@Anjan94150697) August 9, 2023
A letter signed by federal minister Sobha Karandlaje and other women parliamentarians from the ruling party read that the Congress leader “behaved in an indecent manner”. He was also accused of making inappropriate gestures towards Smriti Irani while the latter was addressing the house. Irani, a cabinet minister who is in charge of the ministries of minority affairs and women and child development, defeated Gandhi in his former constituency Amethi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 general elections.
VIDEO | "Rahul Gandhi has always respected women, but the BJP doesn't want to see him in Parliament," says Congress MP Geeta Koda on BJP leaders' complaint to Lok Sabha Speaker against Rahul Gandhi's alleged flying kiss gesture. pic.twitter.com/up1400fsnN
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 9, 2023
Gandhi now represents the Wayanad constituency in the southern state of Kerala which he won in the same election.
VIDEO | “Rahul Gandhi’s behaviour was shameful. Is Parliament a place to give out flying kisses, where women legislators are also seated?” says BJP leader @rsprasad on alleged misbehaviour by Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha. pic.twitter.com/Ufsjmi1I3U
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 9, 2023
“The member has not only insulted the dignity of women members in the House, but it has also brought disrepute and lowered the dignity of this august House,” the letter read, according to a Hindustan Times report.
Speaking to Asian News International, Karandlaje said, “This is the first time we have seen such behaviour from an MP in the House. He made a gesture of a flying kiss at women MPs in the House….It is unacceptable. We have complained to the speaker to take action against him.”
Irani also hit out at Gandhi following the ‘flying kiss’ allegations, without directly naming him.
“The person who spoke before me misbehaved. Only a misogynistic man can gesture a flying kiss to female parliamentarians. It shows the khandhan (family) he comes from, and what his family and party feel about women. Such undignified conduct was never before seen in the Parliament of the country,” she said.
Actor-parliamentarian Hema Malini, who represents the BJP in the house, told India Today that she hadn’t seen any flying kiss incident in the house.
