Congress leaders lashed out Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday amid the escalating Jagdeep Dhankhar mimicry row. The development came even as as BJP leaders and senior officials criticised Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee and other Opposition leaders for ‘mocking’ the Rajya Sabha chairman during a protest. Following the incident Modi had dialed Dhankhar to express his anguish over the ‘theatrics’ of a member in the ‘sacred’ Parliament complex.
“Indiscriminate efforts are being made to divert attention from the suspension of 142 MPs by raising the issue of ‘mimicry’. Never in the history of Parliament has there been suspension of MPs on such a large scale. But those who talk about mimicry, just remember who mimicked whom and that too in the Lok Sabha?” said Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.
The former Union Minister also took to social media with videos where the PM can be seen hitting out at senior Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
He also accused the Prime Minister of mocking former Vice President Hamid Ansari during his farewell event in August 2017.
“It was then most shockingly that the Prime Minister mocked Mr. Ansari, one of India’s most distinguished diplomats, reducing his identity to his religion and in effect alleging that his entire professional and political achievements were because of his religious identity,” he contended.
Ramesh also accused the ruling party of ‘remaining silent’ on a slew of pertinent issues — from the ‘summary suspension of 142 MPs for making a perfectly legitimate demand’ to the recent Lok Sabha breach.
“The entire Modi ecosystem now being galvanised on the so-called mimicry non-issue, while it remains silent on the real issue of why and how a BJP MP from Mysuru facilitated entry of two intruders into Lok Sabha on December 13th — who are now charged under the anti-terror law UAPA,” he wrote in another tweet.
(With inputs from agencies)