The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: An FIR has been registered against Congress MP and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi for allegedly “physically assaulting” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs during a scuffle in the Parliament complex, said officials.
Gandhi has been booked for charges including assault and criminal intimidation, reported Hindustan Times.
The FIR was registered on the basis of a police complaint by BJP MP Hemang Joshi who had urged the police to lodge a case on charges including attempt to murder, causing hurt, endangering life and using criminal force among other sections.
Gandhi has been booked under sections 115 (voluntarily causing hurt), 117 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 125 (endangering life), 131 (assault), 351 (criminal intimidation), and 3/5 (common intention) of the BNSS said officials.
The police are expected to call Gandhi for questioning. The cops will also be requesting the Lok Sabha Secretariat to provide the CCTV footage of the area where the incident allegedly took place.
‘FIR reflects BJP’s desperation, trying to distract public from its comments on Ambedkar’
The BJP has brought up the allegations against Gandhi at a time when the ruling party has been facing the opposition’s ire for Home Minister Amit Shah’s comments on B.R. Ambedkar.
While speaking in the upper house during the constitution debate on December 17 Shah had said:
“Abhi ek fashion ho gaya hai – Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar. Itna naam agar bhagwan ka lete to saat janmon tak swarg mil jata. [It has become a fashion now to say ‘Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar’. Had you taken god’s name so many times, you would have got a place in heaven.]”
Two separate privilege motion notices – one by Congress president and leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, and another by Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien – have been submitted against him.
On Thursday (December 19), when INDIA bloc MPs gathered at the Makar Dwar and raised slogans against the BJP for insulting Ambedkar. Soon, BJP MPs too gathered at the spot and staged a counter protest, accusing the Congress party of insulting Ambedkar.
While the INDIA bloc’s protest was centred around Shah’s statements on Ambedkar, the BJP invoked historical instances dating back several decades to claim that the Congress insulted Amebedkar by defeating him in elections among other things.
Thereafter, the BJP alleged that its party MPs Pratap Chandra Sarangi and Mukesh Rajput fell and sustained injuries after Gandhi pushed them on Thursday (December 19) when INDIA and NDA MPs broke into a scuffle, reported The Indian Express.
While Sarangi even spoke with the media after the incident and claimed that he got injured after Gandhi pushed another MP who fell on him, later it was reported that he has been admitted to the ICU.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra told PTI on Friday (December 20) that the FIR against Rahul Gandhi shows the desperation of the BJP as it wants to distract the public from the backlash it is receiving for Shah’s statements on Ambedkar.
Congress says BJP MPs exerted physical force on Kharge
Meanwhile, the Congress has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla alleging that Gandhi was “physically manhandled” by three BJP MPs.
The Congress has also lodged a police complaint over the allegation that Gandhi and with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge were manhandled and that this act by the BJP MPs endangered the life of Kharge, who is over 80 years old.
“The BJP MP’s exerted physical force on Shri Kharge by pushing him to the ground. This has inflicted bodily injuries to Shri Kharge, Neeraj Dangi and others… The individuals involved in committing offences against Shri Kahreg are identifiable from the video evidence being shared along with the present complaint,” Congress party MPs wrote in the complaint.
A delegation of Congress party MPs including Digvijaya Singh, Mukul Wasnik, Rajiv Shukla and Pramod Tiwari, filed the police complaint.
“Despite being aware of the fact that Shri Kharge ji is more than 80 years of age and exerting criminal force on him would likely to inflict severe bodily injuries on his person, the same did not deter BJP MPs from committing their violent act. This rash act committed by BJP MPs clearly amount to endangering the life of Shri Kharge ji,” they said in the complaint.
However, while the police promptly lodged the FIR based on the BJP’s complaint, it is yet to register an FIR over the Congress’s complaint.