Safina Baig says Anand Sharma was rude to her; MP denies charge

The Congress leader was part of a parliamentary standing committee, which is currently in Kashmir; he said the allegations were baseless and false

Baramulla District Development Council chairperson Safina Baig on Wednesday accused Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Anand Sharma of threatening her and passing derogatory remarks during a review meeting in Srinagar.

Congress leader Anand Sharma. (Ht Photo)

The Congress leader was part of a parliamentary standing committee, which is currently in Kashmir. Baig, who is the wife of former MP and former J&K deputy chief minister Muzaffar Baig, said Sharma threatened her and passed the derogatory remarks because she had unintentionally misnamed Sharma, for which she apologised.

“I apologised, but Sharma behaved very rudely and had a threatening tone. He did not treat me as if I was a democratically elected representative of Kashmir,” she said, adding that she highlighted several issues pertaining to Kashmir, especially Baramulla district. However, she left the meeting after the incident.

“I felt threatened and sad because of the way the Congress leader treated me,’ she said. People’s Conference also took strong exception to Sharma’s alleged behaviour and called it rude and misogynistic.

“An innocuous mistake of getting his royal highness Anand Sharma’s name wrong invited wrath of the delusional prince who broke all parliamentary etiquette and protocol by making misogynistic and derogatory remarks against Baig,” PC spokesman Adnan Ashraf said in a statement.

“The behaviour of the honourable parliamentarian reeks of a colonial mindset. The leaders of same party, which is trying to advocate and articulate the suffering of the people, are lording over elected representatives of Jammu and Kashmir due to the new found powers of “parliamentary delegations” in the Union Territory status of J&K. Lording over elected representatives of J&K is an age old aberration of INC leaders” Ashraf said, while urging the Rajya Sabha chairperson to take notice of this highly condemnable incident.

Congress leader Anand Sharma termed the allegations baseless and false. “This is untrue. There were other members, officials of the administration and around 150 people in the meeting. Anybody will tell you that the allegations are baseless. I was not rude to her. In fact, other members of our parliamentary standing committee, including women, had been upset by her attitude and I had to pacify other members of the committee. Being the chairperson of the committee, I do not want to react to this issue and give credence to her.”