Danish Ali denies allegations of making derogatory comments against PM Modi says ‘Not stooped too low…’

BSP MP Danish Ali has termed the allegations levelled by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nishikant Dubey as baseless and said that he has not yet stooped too low to make such comments on the country's Prime Minister.

The Bahujan Samaj Party MP statement came after charges slapped by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey amid the controversy triggered by the latter's fellow party lawmaker Ramesh Bidhuri's objectionable remarks in the Lok Sabha.

Dubey on Saturday said that Bidhuri got "provoked" as Danish Ali kept calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi "neech".

"The words used by him (Bidhuri) are not acceptable. I was present in the Parliament when all this took place. BSP MP Danish Ali kept calling PM Modi 'neech'...If you would provoke someone by using derogatory remarks against the Prime Minister then definitely such reaction will come," Dubey had said while speaking with ANI.

Responding on his statement, Danish Ali said that he has not stooped too low to make such comments on the country's Prime Minister. "We do not have that character and values," he told news agency ANI.

"In the new Parliament building, the distance between my seat and Ramesh Bidhuri was so much that my voice could not be heard without a mic," he said.

Also read: Not the 1st time for Ramesh Bidhuri: A look at BJP MP's previous offensive comments

"These allegations against me are baseless, and I do not take them seriously. And in the BJP, RSS training is given to repeat a lie 100 times till it becomes the truth," the BSP MP added.

He said that, instead, BJP should be ashamed of defending such remarks, made by Bidhuri.

"If some moral is left in BJP, then actions should also be taken on Nishikant Dubey and (BJP's IT cell chief) Amit Malviya," Ali said.

Meanwhile, BJP MP Dubey also wrote a letter to Om Birla urging him to constitute an inquiry committee that should look into “the extent of culpability” of MPs who “instigate other citizens” with their comments in the House.

"I have written a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla requesting him to constitute an Inquiry Committee to investigate Danish Ali's remark and the utterances made by various members during the discussion that day including the speeches of Saugata Roy, who questioned the existence of Lord Ram, and others...We need to understand that people like Danish Ali and some leaders of Congress, DMK, and TMC are habitual offenders and they make derogatory comments to provoke BJP MPs," he said.

In his letter, Dubey has also accused Ali of offering a running commentary during Bidhuri's speech in Lok Sabha on Thursday and making unsavoury remarks aimed at instigating him to lose his composure.

“When Shri Danish Ali was busy instigating Bidhuri with his intemperate comments, he made a highly objectionable and derogatory remark against our Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Jee. In his desperation to denigrate the ruling dispensation and the Prime Minister's achievement of landing Chandrayaan3 on the moon, he screamed across the aisle, without the microphone but could be clearly heard saying that "neech ko neech nahi kahenge to kya kahenge,” Dubey said.

He had added that it was more than enough for any patriotic public representative to lose his calm and fall into his trap by uttering unsavoury words. “If Bidhuri has committed an inappropriate act, then, in my view, other Honourable Members, including Danish Ali, have also contributed to spreading enmity amongst communities,” Dubey said.

He said that the aspect of 'Breach of Privilege', which Danish Ali and some other members of Parliament have been quoting vociferously, cannot be a one-way street and if applied in isolation will be a serious and irrevocable 'miscarriage of justice'.

“I, therefore, request you to constitute an 'inquiry committee' to investigate the utterances made by various members during the said discussion and also to inquire into the extent of culpability of various other Members of Parliament in instigating our citizens by way of their comments made in the House by taking shelter of Article 105 of our Constitution,” he said.

Dubey, however, has condemned the remarks of his party members made in the Lok Sabha. “It is also a commendable display of profound respect for our ‘Temple of Democracy' and maintaining the dignity of Parliament by your good self that the unsavoury words uttered by Shri Bidhuri were immediately expunged from the proceedings of the House. I along with other like-minded Members of Parliament congratulate your good self for your prompt action,” he said.

Ramesh Bidhuri's objectionable remarks against Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Danish Ali have triggered anger among the Opposition parties, with their demand for strict action against Bidhuri. Ali has given an ultimatum of leaving the Parliament if the Speaker will not conduct an enquiry into the matter.

Meanwhile, the BJP has issued a show cause notice to party MP Ramesh Bidhuri on the instruction of party president JP Nadda for his use of unparliamentary language againstBSPMP Danish Ali, sources said. Earlier on Friday, leaders of Congress, NCP, TMC and DMK wrote to Om Birla to act against the BJP leader and demanded that the matter should be sent to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee.

(With inputs from ANI)