Since Friday morning, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Delhi Member of Parliament (MP) Ramesh Bidhuri’s name has been trending on X, previously Twitter, in India and across news channels. Reason: His offensive diatribe in Lok Sabha against Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Danish Ali, which had to be expunged by the Speaker.
Such was his statement that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had to stand up and apologise in the house, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had to issue a stern “warning” and his party president JP Nadda had to issue a show-cause notice asking why action should not be initiated against him.
Beyond the borders of the National Capital Region (NCR), Bidhuri isn’t a familiar face. So who is he?
CONTROVERSY’S FAVOURITE
This is not the first instance of the MP being on the wrong side. He has a history of controversial remarks.
Last year, when a parent went to seek help from him in a matter related to school, Bidhuri allegedly replied, “Why do you give birth to a child in the first place?”
This sparked off a huge furore which eventually died down.
He also sparked off another controversy when he made a similar communal statement. He said, “Wherever Muslims are in the minority, we speak of human rights. But wherever they are in the majority, violence breaks out.”
In 2019, at a meeting in Mehrauli, Bidhuri had called the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief a b***** (pimp). He said it in the presence of Union Minister Giriraj Singh. He stood by his comment even later saying, “I will say this again and again, I don’t think I said anything wrong.”
In 2015, women MPs had complained against Bidhuri’s “sexist and abusive language” in the Lok Sabha.
Ranjeet Ranjan, Congress MP from Supaul in Bihar, had officially complained to the Speaker about his “abusive” language against her. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule, then Congress MP from Silchar Sushmita Dev, Trinamool Congress’s Arpita Ghosh from Balurghat constituency, and CPI(M)’s PK Shreemathi Teacher-Lok Sabha MP from Kannur had accompanied Ranjan to the Speaker’s room.
LAWYER, BIZMAN &…A FARMER
Bidhuri was elected to Parliament in 2014 and subsequently in 2019 from the South Delhi constituency. Earlier, he had a long stint as a Delhi politician as an MLA from Tughlaqabad from 2003 to 2014. He is known for the way he speaks.
He completed his LLB from Ch. Charan Singh University, Meerut, after his graduation in commerce (B.Com) from Delhi University. He has been an active member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — the student’s wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — since 1983. He was the BJP’s District President from 1997 to 2003 and later worked actively as the Vice-President of BJP Delhi from 2003 to 2008.
His Lok Sabha profile mentions ‘farmer’ and ‘businessperson’, too, as his professions. However, little is known about his farming activities. However, he was critical of sections of farmers who held a year-long farmer protest that blocked the Delhi borders.
Last year, the Delhi Police had lodged a first information report (FIR) against three relatives of Bidhuri for allegedly trying to extort Rs 1 crore from a businessman in south-east Delhi. At that time, the MP claimed he wasn’t aware of it.
According to the complaint, Bidhuri and his associates abused and assaulted a man and also threatened him with a revolver at a function on June 26, 2004. In 2019, Bidhuri was let off. He, along with others, was accused in a case of rioting and instigating the public to attack police personnel during a protest in 2006. However, a Delhi court discharged them in 2018 for want of evidence.
Comments
0 comment