New Delhi: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and KC Venugopal met BSP MP Danish Ali, at the latter's Delhi residence on Friday. The meeting took place amid a controversy around a viral clip purportedly showing BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri hurling communal slurs at Danish Ali during Lok Sabha proceedings on Thursday. "Nafrat ke bazaar mein mohabbat ki dukaan," Rahul Gandhi said after meeting the BSP leader.
“He (Rahul Gandhi) came here to keep my morale high and to extend his support. He said that I am not alone and everyone who is standing with democracy is standing with me,” Danish Ali told media after his meeting with Rahul Gandhi.
Meanwhile, BJP MPs Ravi Shankar Prasad and Harsh Vardhan distanced themselves from Bidhuri's remarks after they came under attack for allegedly laughing at the time of the incident.
While Ravi Shankar Prasad said he does not support any derogatory remark, Harsh Vardhan claimed that some people with vested interests had "dragged" his name into the controversy and said that he could not "clearly hear" what was being said due to "chaos" in the House at the time.
Taking to X, Harsh Vardhan wrote, “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.”
Prasad tweeted, “We have always supported dignified conduct inside and outside Parliament and I myself also follow it. I do not support any comment which is indecent.”
Meanwhile, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla over the issue.
“It is with a deep sense of pain and anguish that I, as a senior Member of Parliament, am compelled to, and in fact feel it to be my bounden duty to impress upon you the need for taking stringent action as per the rules against Ramesh Bidhuri for using brazenly abusive and unparliamentary words against a Member of leading political party, Danish Ali, who also happens to be from the minority community,” he wrote.