Mahua Moitra appeals LS Speaker Om Birla to hand mic to Opposition

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Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra on Sunday made an appeal to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Twitter as she said she expects the Speaker to hand the microphone to the opposition so that they can ask PM Modi 'to Maafi Maango' over Gujarat BJP MLA allegedly raping a woman.

"Ominous silence from Drama Bahu brigade," Mahua Moitra wrote in a veiled dig at Union minister Smriti Irani and her landmark television show 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi'

Mahua Moitra's dig comes after a ruckus in the Lok Sabha on Thursday when Union minister Smriti Irani raised the issue of Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's 'rashtrapatni' remark and sought an apology from the Congress and Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi. The BJP accused Sonia Gandhi of being aggressive to Smriti Irani while the Congress countered the allegation and said it was Smriti Irani who 'abused' Sonia Gandhi when Sonia was speaking to BJP MP Rama Devi.

Mahua Moitra was one of the MPs present there and said BJP MPs surrounded Sonia Gandhi like a ‘pack of wolves’ and whatever BJP claimed about Sonia Gandhi intimidating was all lies. "Was in Lok Sabha when 75 year old lady senior leader encircled & heckled pack-wolf style when all she did was walk over & speak (masked) to another senior lady panel chairperson. Disgusted to read BJP lies & false version in press," she tweeted soon after the incident took place. Mahua also countered Nirmala Sitharaman's claim that the BJP MPs in the Lok Sabha felt threatened when Sonia Gandhi approached that side and said, "The only one feeling threatened in Parliament nowadays is democracy."

A day after the furore, the Trinamool on Friday attacked the BJP over the issue of women safety citing the case of Arjinsinh Chauhan who allegedly raped a woman and confined her for five years.

Adir Chowdhury has apologised for his ‘rashtrapatni’ address to President Droupadi Murmu and in his apology letter, he said it was a slip of tongue. The Congress leader wrote a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and said the way Smriti Irani yelled the President's name without prefixing 'Madam or Smt' in the Lok Sabha was degrading to the stature of the highest office of the country.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)