Concocted, baseless and diversionary: Danish Ali refutes complaints against him in letter to LS Speaker

New Delhi: BSP MP Danish Ali on Friday objected to the Lok Sabha Privileges Committee clubbing his complaint against BJP lawmaker Ramesh Bidhuri for making “communal” remarks against him with “concocted, baseless and diversionary” allegations.

Ali wrote to Speaker Om Birla protesting against the move after the panel summoned him on December 7 to record his “oral evidence” on “complaints received from various MPs against Ramesh Bidhuri and Kunwar Danish Ali for alleged improper conduct” during the discussion on Chandrayaan-III Mission during Special Session in September.

Ali and other Opposition MPs had complained against Bidhuri for making communal remarks while BJP MPs had filed complaints protesting against the BSP MP, accusing him of using intemperate language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

In his letter, Ali requested the Speaker to get the video footage of Lok Sabha proceedings and circulate the transcript of the proceedings among panel members to “expose the lies being propagated and help clarify matters by identifying the real culprit”. He said the panel should go “strictly by the records of the House” and take swift action.

Expressing his “shock” over the clubbing of his complaint with the allegations “drummed up” by Bidhuri, he said he had sought “swift, strict and exemplary action by you (Speaker) so as to prevent the repeat of the ugly language by any member in the sanctum sanctorum of Indian democracy”.

“What I see instead is a sad attempt to create a diversion by turning the victim to an accused. The notice I have received from the Committee of Privileges talks about getting oral evidence against me. This is outrageous. It would be a travesty of justice if the committee…fails to act against Bidhuri by taking refuge in fabricated, malicious and clearly afterthought complaints against me,” he said.

Ali claimed that Bidhuri had launched a “one-sided and totally unprovoked abusive and unparliamentary attack” on him and this was witnessed by the whole country as the proceedings were telecast live.

The objectionable remarks, which were communal in nature, were removed from the records of Lok Sabha while Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had expressed regret inside the House.

Ali had earlier written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, alleging violations of Parliamentary procedures for not calling him first in a complaint filed by him against Bidhuri for making communal slurs against him. This time, Ali will appear before the panel first followed by Bidhuri. 

He had also written to Modi seeking action against Bidhuri. Though a show-cause notice was issued, the BJP had appointed him a district in-charge for poll-bound Rajasthan soon after the incident.