New Delhi: Senior BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri on Tuesday did not appear before the parliamentary panel probing his alleged communal comments against BSP MLA Danish Ali, citing prior commitments, sources said.
Sources said Bidhuri is currently campaigning for the party in poll-bound Rajasthan. He is in-charge of the party in Tonk district, which has four assembly seats.
The Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha has sought his presence to record his statement in the complaints filed by Ali and other MPs for “alleged inappropriate conduct during the discussion on Chandrayaan-3 mission in the House”.
BJP MPs have filed a counter-complaint, accusing Ali of “provoking” Bidhuri by making objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Earlier, Lok Sabha Speaker Birla had taken “serious note” of the objectionable comments made by Bidhuri in the Lok Sabha during the discussion on ‘Chandrayaan-III Mission’ during the special session on September 19.
The objectionable comments, which were communal in nature, were expunged from the records of the Lok Sabha, while Defense Minister Rajnath Singh expressed regret inside the House.
BJP had issued a show cause notice to Bidhuri but also made him the election in-charge of a district in Rajasthan.
In his letter to the Speaker, Ali had written, “I am writing to you with deep pain in connection with the speech given in the Lok Sabha by Shri Ramesh Bidhuri, a BJP MP, during the discussion on ‘Chandrayaan Success’. During this, he uttered very dirty, derogatory abuses against me which are part of the record of the Lok Sabha.”
“This is most unfortunate and the fact that this has happened in the new Parliament House under your leadership as Speaker is truly heart-wrenching for me as a minority member of this great nation and an elected Member of Parliament,” Amroha The MP said while listing. The BJP MLA used communally derogatory words during his speech.
