BJP seeks apology from Cong after MP shouts at Smriti Irani in Parliament

A furious Irani also moved towards Prathapan before other lawmakers stopped them as Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House. “Let us have certain civility in the House,” Birla said.

Congress lawmaker T N Prathapan rushed to the aisle near the Well of Lok Sabha and shouted at Union minister Smriti Irani amid a war of words in Parliament’s lower House on Friday over the brutal attack a day earlier on a 24-year-old woman, who was allegedly gang-raped in December last year in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao.

Smriti Irani earlier lashed out at the Congress for politicising the issue. She also took on Trinamool Congress (TMC), another key Opposition party. (PTI PHOTO.)

A furious Irani also moved towards Prathapan before other lawmakers stopped them as Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House. “Let us have certain civility in the House,” Birla said.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi slammed the Congress for trying to threaten Irani. “This is the most condemnable behaviour. They came threatening...when she [Irani] was speaking. She is a lady member of the House. It is most uncalled and they should apologise,” Joshi said in the House when it assembled after lunch break.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Meenakshi Lekhi, who was in the chair later, told Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to ask his party lawmakers to seek an apology.

Irani earlier lashed out at the Congress for politicising the issue. She also took on Trinamool Congress (TMC), another key Opposition party.

When some TMC lawmakers protested, she retorted, “This is not a political issue. I thought that you should have commented when Adhir Ranjan was speaking.”

Chowdhury took jibes at the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh over the incident. “Sita is being burnt while there are plans to build a grand Ram temple [in Ayodhya],” Chowdhury said.

He blamed Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath administration for failing to improve the law and order situation.