Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress's leader in Lok Sabha, tried to pull a Mani Shankar Aiyar after comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a "gandi naali" by blaming his "poor Hindi". He, in fact, said that by "gandi naali", he meant a "channel" and not a sewer.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also apologised to PM Modi for his remarks, saying that he had no intention to hurt him.
He said, "It is a misunderstanding, I didn't say 'naali'. If PM Modi is upset with it, I am sorry. I had no intention to hurt him. My Hindi is not good, by 'naali', I meant channel and not sewer. I apologise if the nation feels that I have disrespected the prime minister."
Congress leader, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on his remark in Lok Sabha: It is a misunderstanding, I didn't say 'naali', if PM is upset with it I'm sorry. I had no intention to hurt him. If PM is hurt I'll personally apologise to him. My hindi is not good, by 'naali' I meant channel. pic.twitter.com/nS70IUHXvW
— ANI (@ANI) June 24, 2019
Another comments Chowdhury made was “Don’t compare a monk with a monster.”
As the political war raged, Chowdhury said he was only responding to Sarangi’s comparison of the PM with Vivekananda.
“Sarangi put the two on the same pedestal. This hurt the sentiments of Bengal. That’s why I said you’re provoking me. I’ll say you’re comparing Maa Ganga with ‘naali’…,” said the Congress leader as the BJP mounted a counter-offensive.
BJP working chief JP Nadda slammed the Congress for its leader’s “utterly condemnable” comments.
“The Congress continues to insult the PM elected by 125 crore Indians. People have been giving befitting replies to the Congress election after election. The Congress’s arrogance will be its undoing,” Nadda said as the matter blew over in replay of Aiyar’s “neech aadmi” remarks on Modi. Those remarks were also blamed by Aiyar on his poor Hindi.
Besides, Chowdhury trended on Twitter all day for seeking a national moustache status for the moustache of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman who was released by Pakistan after being held captive.
Most Twitter buffs asked if a “national beard” was next. NC’s Omar Abdullah said, “The Congress wants India to have a national moustache. I look forward to seeing all my friends in the Congress sporting the Abhinandan moustache.”
Chowdhury may have raised the BJP’s heckles with his tirade against the PM but he drew a heavy applause from the opposition for attributing the BJP’s Lok Sabha win to “master-marketing” and for terming BJP a champion of “political plagiarism”.
UPA chief Sonia Gandhi frequently hailed Chowdhury, often prompting him to list Congress-time laws like the RTI, RTE and Right to Food.
So if BJP’s Sarangi’s speech was all about Modi praises, Chowdhury’s was all about Jahawarlal Nehru and Congress praises.
He asked the PM and BJP chief and Home Minister Amit Shah who were present in the House, “You say you will demolish Pakistan. Could you have demolished Pakistan had the Congress not built missiles? No. Who gave India Bhakra Nangal, ONGC, NTPC, SBI…The Congress did. How many PSUs did you create? You just shut them down.”
The Congress leader spoke for 90 minutes, well past his allotted 55.