PM Modi’s Ramayana Jibe in RS Has Renuka Chowdhury Seeing Red
PM Modi derided Renuka Chowdhury’s laughter, comparing her to an unnamed Ramayana character.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that AB Vajpayee’s BJP government had “sown the seeds of Aadhaar” around two decades back, little did he expect to hear Renuka Chowdhury burst into loud, reverberating laughter.
Chowdhury, a senior Congress lawmaker, “couldn’t help but chuckle,” interrupting the Prime Minister’s speech and prompting Rajya Sabha Speaker Venkaiah Naidu to chide her for “loose talk”. Naidu asked Chowdhury if something was wrong with her and then asked her to sit down.
But Chowdhury fell silent when the Prime Minister requested Naidu to let the Congress lawmaker be, as the house hadn’t heard such laughter since the days of Ramayana, the serial. Although PM Modi did not name any character from the epic, he left lawmakers guessing as to who had compared Chowdhury’s laughter to.
Offended at the Prime Minister for deriding her laughter, Chowdhury questioned Modi’s sense of etiquette and upbringing, as she emerged out of Parliament. She added that legal action could be taken against the him as denigrating the status of women is punishable by law. She further lashed out at the BJP, accusing it of being a party working against women’s rights.
Chowdhury, however, sought reassurance in the nation, which she claims is filled with those fond of her laughter.
Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam
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