That ‘Surpanakha’ moment: Renuka Chowdhury threatens to sue PM Modi, says will courts act

This classless megalonaniac referred to me as Surpanakha on the floor of the house.

I will file a defamation case against him. Let’s see how fast courts will act now.. pic.twitter.com/6T0hLdS4YW

— Renuka Chowdhury (@RenukaCCongress) March 23, 2023

On February 8, 2018, the PM was speaking in the Rajya Sabha about the Aadhaar scheme. At one point, he said that the concept of Aadhaar was mooted in 1998 by L K Advani, the home minister in the then NDA government. It was at this point that Chowdhury burst into laughter. When then Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu asked Chowdhury to behave, Modi urged him not to restrain the Congress MP. “It is for the first time after the Ramayana serial that we are having the good fortune of hearing such laughter today,” the PM said.

A clipping of this incident was subsequently tweeted by Union minister Kiren Rijiju. Calling it “highly objectionable”, Chowdhury said she would file a privilege motion against Rijiju. The minister told the media: “I am only referring to how the Prime Minister didn’t get annoyed. Despite such vexatious laugh by Renuka Chowdhury, the PM didn’t get irritated.”

Amit Malviya, the social media head of the BJP, hours later tweeted a clip of Surpanakha laughing out loud from the serial, with the comment: “Someone sent me this video clip from Ramayana in response to ‘identify the laughter’ contest… Can you identify her?”

In the Ramayana, Ravana’s sister Surpanakha has her note cut off by Lakshman, after she professes her love for Ram.

Reacting sharply to Modi’s comments, the Congress called them “distasteful” and “sexist”, with the Mahila Congress demanding an apology from the PM. Its leader Anand Sharma said Modi had “crossed the line of political discourse” with the use of his language and his “outrageous” reference. Then Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev said, “I express my shock at the utterly sexist and downright distasteful comment against an honourable Member of Parliament, made by none less than the honorable Prime Minister of India.”

The BJP had rallied against Chowdhury. Then Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani said, “It is wrong to use your gender as a shield to hide your ill-mannered behaviour. Ask any woman, she would not accept it.”

However, parliamentary proceedings are not “liable to any proceedings in any court”.

Article 105 of the Constitution deals, which deals with the “powers, privileges, etc of the Houses of Parliament and of the members and committees thereof”, says:“(1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution and to the rules and standing orders regulating the procedure of Parliament, there shall be freedom of speech in Parliament.”

It adds, “(2) No member of Parliament shall be liable to any proceedings in any court in respect of any thing said or any vote given by him in Parliament or any committee thereof, and no person shall be so liable in respect of the publication by or under the authority of either House of Parliament of any report, paper, votes or proceedings.”

Chowdhury, known for her outspokenness and flamboyance, has been lying low since her Lok Sabha defeat from Telangana’s Khammam seat in 2019. She was last in news in June 2022, when news cameras caught her grabbing a police sub-inspector’s collar during the Telangana Congress’s protest in Hyderabad against the Enforcement Directorate’s questioning of Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case.