A hug, a wink, and now a kiss: Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha gestures under lens
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 9
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s act of blowing a kiss towards the treasury benches just before leaving Lok Sabha after his speech in the ongoing no confidence motion discussions outraged the women ministers and MPs who promptly petitioned Speaker Om Birla against the Congress MP on Wednesday.
Absolutely shameful conduct by Rahul Gandhi, who blew a ‘flying kiss’ on his way out of the Parliament, gesturing towards a lady MP…
Absolutely sickening.
This is not the first time Rahul Gandhi has displayed such disgusting behaviour. Earlier he was seen winking and throwing… pic.twitter.com/8YhhZaWmob
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) August 9, 2023
“Never before have we seen this level of misogyny in the Indian Parliament,” said Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani, a traditional rival to Gandhi, whom she had defeated in his family bastion of Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Just when Irani got up to rebut Gandhi for his “BJP has murdered Bharat Mata in Manipur” remarks in LS today, Gandhi collected his papers and left the Lok Sabha, provoking ruling side MPs to shout, “Why are you running away now?”
At this moment Gandhi, headed towards LS exit, turned around and blew a flying kiss twice towards the treasury side.
Top women ministers Shobha Karandlaje, Darshana Jardosh and women MPs of the BJP rushed a complaint to the Speaker against Gandhi’s “indecent act”, with MP Poonam Mahajan demanding that the Wayanad member be suspended from Parliament.
While the Congress explained Rahul Gandhi’s gesture saying he was responding in his “Mohabbat ki dukaan” mode to ruling side jibes, the audacity of the act was not lost on anyone.
“This is not the first time Rahul Gandhi has behaved inappropriately inside Lok Sabha,” Shobha Karandlaje and Jardosh said.
They recalled Rahul’s act of walking across the aisle to hug Prime Minister Narendra Modi after finishing his speech in the July 2018 no confidence motion against the Council of Ministers.
After hugging the PM, Rahul returned to his seat and winked in a gesture of victory.
“Rahul Gandhi’s undignified and misogynistic act is revealing of Congress Party’s culture of entitlement and disrespect for the women,” said Irani, who attacked the Congress leader in the House for his actions.
BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad said he was pained by what he saw.
“What kind of behaviour is Rahul Gandhi displaying? Has he any decency or not?” he asked.
BJP MPs have demanded “strictest action” urging Birla to cull out video footage of Rahul Gandhi and examine his act.
Meanwhile, the developments throw fresh light on misogyny in politics with several MPs noting that the trend was prevalent across world Parliaments.
Senior MPs remembered how British PM David Cameron was in 2011 criticised when during Prime Minister’s Questions he told shadow Treasury secretary Angela Eagle to “calm down, dear.” At the time too, Downing Street had shrugged off the remarks as “humour.”
In 2018, Boris Johnson as foreign secretary was attacked for calling shadow counterpart Emily Thornberry by her husband’s title rather than her name.
In 2013 William Hague as foreign secretary faced criticism for his purported utterance “stupid woman” for an opposition woman leader.
Back in India, late Sharad Yadav had come under fire for calling short haired women “par kati” during a debate on Women’s Quota Bill.
Then Chairman, Rajya Sabha M Venkaiah Naidu’s comments, “You should go and see a doctor” when Congress MP Renuka Chowdhary laughed too loudly in the House in PM Narendra Modi’s presence had also caused a flutter.
