Poonam Mahajan slams Chowdhury for remarks on Finance Minister

BJP leader Poonam Mahajan on Tuesday mounted a fresh attack on Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for his remarks on the Finance Minister, saying it is he and not Nirmala Sitharaman who is "weak".

Participating in the discussion on Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, Chowdhury had on Monday suggested that the finance minister has become weak and called her 'Nirbala Sitharaman'.

As BJP members protested against his comment, Speaker Om Birla had ruled that any unparliamentary remark would be removed from records.

During the Zero Hour on Tuesday, when Chowdhury rose to speak on onion prices, Mahajan referred to a rule to slam the Congress leader for his remarks.

"You are nirbal (weak) as you stand for one family. You are weak as you call the prime minister an infiltrator," she said amid noisy protests by BJP members.

The treasury benches also asked Chowdhury to apologise for his remarks.

During her reply on Monday, Sitharaman did not directly refer to Chowdhury's comment but concluded her speech by saying she still is Nirmala and "sabla" (empowered).

On Tuesday, soon after Chowdhury started to speak on high prices of onion, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal said the Congress leader should first offer an apology for his remark made against the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister, then only he should be allowed to speak in the House.

Earlier this week, Chowdhury had termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah as "infiltrators" in Delhi.

The Congress leader also had said Modi and Shah are migrants since they have their homes in Gujarat but are now living in Delhi.

Taking objection, Mahajan said Chowdhury should apologise for using the derogatory term against the Finance Minister.

There was slogan shouting from the treasury benches to show their anger against Chowdhury's remark.

Amidst slogan shouting, Chowdhury said this government is anti-poor and anti-farmer as it is hardly doing anything when the prices onion have crossed Rs 100 per kg.

The government is unable to check prices of essential commodities, he said. Amidst disruptions, Congress staged a walk out.