Kolkata: In June 2019, the Congress sprung a surprise by naming West Bengal’s ‘Robinhood’ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as its Lok Sabha leader, making him the first Member of Parliament from Bengal to hold the post with Congress in the opposition benches.
Chowdhury won the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat defeating a Trinamool Congress candidate, Apurba Sarkar, in 2019. His political prowess didn’t go unnoticed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had complimented him for remaining a strong critic of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and had called him a ‘fighter’ with a pat on his back.
However, he recently made headlines for his confusing tweet on former finance minister and colleague P Chidambaram and self-goal on issues such as Article 370 in Parliament, which also earned him the ire of party president Sonia Gandhi.
Even as he was trying to put the issues behind him, Friday’s Parliament session once again brought him to the limelight. While arguing the suspension of seven Congress members from the House and demanding revocation of the Speaker’s orders, Chowdhury said: “Jeb Katrey Ko Phansi Ke Takhte Pe Nahi Chadaya Ja Sakta Hai (a pickpocket cannot be sent to the gallows).”
This, however, did not go down well with his colleagues.
On Thursday, seven Congress MPs — Gaurav Gogoi, TN Prathapan, Dean Kuriakose, Manicka Tagore, Rajmohan Unnithan, Benny Behanan and Gurjeet Singh Aujla — have been suspended from Lok Sabha for the remaining period of the Budget Session after they snatched papers from the Speaker’s table in protest against Delhi riots.
When asked why his statements were usually taken out of context, he said: “I felt the punishment was disproportionate. I just used the sentence as a saying. I felt that the punishment was much more than the act. Only one MP snatched the paper, then why seven of them were selectively picked and suspended? I think allegorically, nothing could be better than this to explain the instance.”
He also refuted claims that the party MPs lodged a complaint with Sonia Gandhi against his ‘pickpocket’ comment. “No, why should they? I am fighting for the party, then why will the party be angry with me?”
Shedding light on his previous statement on Article 370, Chowdhury asked if what he had said was wrong. “I wanted to know from the Home Minister whether it is an internal or international matter. There is a UN monitoring group for Kashmir since 1948. Now, once you abrogated Article 370, I asked what will be the status of the group? They are saying it is an internal matter but foreign envoys paid visits to Kashmir. Today, everybody (from UN to America) is discussing Kashmir. What is wrong in asking such questions to the Home Ministry? I don’t think I have made any wrong statement,” he said.
The Congress leader’s tweet on Chidambaram too had many scratching their heads. Soon after he was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the INX Media Case, Chowdhury tweeted: "Enlargement of @PChidambaram_INji has eloquently proved that at the end of the day truth prevails upon, he is irresistible (sic).”
The confusing tweet had people coming up with their own explanation. While some said it gave a “whole new meaning” to the news, others wondered if somebody else was tweeting on behalf of the five-term MP from West Bengal.
“Enlargement is legal jargon, which means ‘Jail Se Bari Hona’. You can ask a legal professional. If someone has failed to understand my tweet, it is their problem. Those who are confused and are making headlines, I would like to suggest to them that they should flip the pages of a legal dictionary first,” he added.
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