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‘People will never forgive them’: Union minister attacks TMC, Mamata Banerjee over mimicry row
The Union minister targetted the TMC supremo for “backing” her leaders over the controversy.
Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday hit out at the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and party supremo Mamata Banerjee over the row that erupted after its MP Kalyan Banerjee staged a mimicry on Parliament premises while protesting against the suspension of MPs during the Winter Session. Days after the incident, the TMC MP said on Sunday that he is “helpless” if someone “doesn't have a cultured mind" to appreciate mimicry.
Also read: Kalyan Banerjee of TMC mimics Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar again, this time in Bengal
The Union minister said although no one is jailed for being “uncultured”, however, “in a democracy, people will never forgive them if they mock a constitutional post, if they mock a farmer's son and if they mock someone coming from a backward caste.”
A political storm broke out after the TMC MP purportedly mimicked Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar at the Parliament's Makar Dwar while protesting against the suspension of 146 Opposition MPs from both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha during the session.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accusing the Opposition of "denigrating" the Jat community, to which Jagdeep Dhankhar belongs.
Meanwhile, Dhankhar also said Banerjee's “shameful” act of mimicry had pained him and he felt insulted as a farmer's son from the Jat community, and also hit out at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for filming the TMC MP's act.
"I can't understand why you think it is about you, he's crying from day to night. Why is he crying so much, like a child?" the TMC MP asked without naming the V-P.
Responding to Dhankhar's ‘farmer’s son' remark, the TMC MP dared the Rajya Sabha Chairperson to inform people of the country about the number of days he had worked in a field. "I pray that crores of farmers in the country amass as much property as him," he added. "You say you are a farmer's son. Then tell us, during your career as a lawyer, how many times have you fought a case for farmers? I have done it. I have fought cases for the poor for 40 years."
