Jaya Bachchan Spars With Rajya Sabha Chair Again For Using 'Amitabh' In Her Name; Sonia Gandhi Leads Oppn Walkout

Parliament Monsoon Session 2024: Rajya Sabha members belonging to opposition parties staged a walk-out on Friday after a heated exchange between Jaya Bachchan and House Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar over yet another instance of the Samajwadi Party MP being addressed by the Chair as 'Jaya Amitabh Bachchan'.

The verbal altercation started when the Opposition MP confronted the Rajya Sabha Chairman over his 'tone' after he invited her to speak. Taking exception to her remarks, Dhankhar said he didn't need any "schooling". The Opposition walk-out in the wake of the bitter argument was led by Congress matriarch Sonia Gandhi, NDTV reported. This was the third occassion in the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament that Jaya Bachchan when sparred with the Rajya Sabha Chair over its use of "Amitabh" in her name. 

#WATCH | Amid demand of Opposition Rajya Sabha MPs for expunging remarks of BJP MP Ghanshyam Tiwari about LoP, SP MP Jaya Bachchan made remarks about the tone of the remarks made by the Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar. The Chairman took strong exception to Jaya Bachchan's remarks,… pic.twitter.com/2qNe82eEws

— ANI (@ANI) August 9, 2024

Married to Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya has explicitly criticised the practice of women being identified by their husband's names. Speaking to reporters outside the Parliament building, she said, "...I objected to the tone used by the Chair. We are not school children. Some of us are senior citizens. I was upset with the tone and especially when the Leader of Opposition stood up to speak, he switched off the mike. How can you do this? You have to allow the Leader of Opposition to speak."

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The actor-politician added, "He said you may be a celebrity, I do not care. I am not asking him to care. I am saying I am a member of Parliament. This is my fifth term. I know what I am saying. The way things are being spoken in Parliament these days, nobody has ever spoken before. I want an apology."

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Meanwhile, slamming the Opposition for its "unruly behaviour", Union Minister and senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, "This House is not just a building of bricks and mortar, it is the sacred temple of democracy. I have been a member of Lok Sabha 6 times and Vidhan Sabha 6 times. But I have never seen such unruly behaviour of the opposition in my life."

He added, "This is not only an insult to the Chair, it is an insult to the democratic values of the country, democracy and the Constitution. Today it has been proved that the irresponsible opposition is trying to push the country into anarchy... The opposition should apologize for this."

(With inputs from ANI)