Did India’s opposition MP Rahul Gandhi ‘blow a kiss’ in parliament?

Congress party points to video claiming Gandhi gestured towards treasury benches and not at women MPs

Congress senior leader Rahul Gandhi arrives at the parliament in New Delhi after his Lok Sabha membership was restored in New Delhi on 7 August (EPA)

Indian political leader Rahul Gandhi is facing the wrath of women lawmakers from the ruling party after he was accused of “blowing a kiss” during a parliament session – a claim strongly disputed by the opposition Congress.

Gandhi spoke in parliament for the first time on Wednesday after being reinstated as a lawmaker after disqualification in a defamation case.

He opened the discussion on the second day of the debate on no-confidence brought against Narendra Modi’s government over ethnic violence continuing in the northeastern state of Manipur since May.

Speaking right after Gandhi, Smriti Irani, the federal minister for women and child development from the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), accused the Congress MP of “misogyny” and making an “indecent gesture”, claiming he made a “flying kiss” at her during the session.

“Only a misogynist man can blow a flying kiss to parliament that seats women MPs,” Ms Irani said. The action “lacked dignity”, she said.

“Never before has the ‘misogynistic behaviour’ of a man been so visible in parliament. When the House of the people – where laws are made to protect the dignity of women – during the course of a session stands witness to a man’s misogyny, my question is should he be brought to task?” she questioned.

The Congress has denied the allegations, saying he was gesturing towards the treasury benches and not anyone in particular amid commotion and sloganeering taking place in the Lok Sabha or lower house of parliament.

The incident prompted at least 21 women parliamentarians of the BJP to file a written complaint against Gandhi to house speaker Om Birla to demand “stringent action” against his alleged “inappropriate gesture”.

The letter accused Gandhi of insulting the dignity of women members in the house.

Video footage of the session showing Gandhi from a distance has gone viral on social media. While the footage does not clearly show Gandhi’s gesture, social media users were split, with some accusing the Congress MP, while others defended him.

Gandhi is yet to offer a statement on the matter.

Actor and BJP lawmaker Hema Malini, one of the signatories of the letter, raised eyebrows after she said she did not see Gandhi making the gesture.

The controversy follows Gandhi, a Congress scion known for making cheeky gestures, including winking at a fellow lawmaker and hugging Mr Modi during a parliament session, catching him off guard.

In July 2018, during a debate on a previous no-confidence motion against the BJP, Gandhi walked across to where Mr Modi sat and hugged him while he was sitting.

After the hug, Gandhi returned and winked at his former colleague, lawmaker Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was sitting next to him.

The Congress party’s leaders have accused the BJP of blowing the issue out of proportion.

“Rahul Gandhi gestured towards the treasury benches as he was leaving with a flying kiss as he had called them brothers and sisters. He did not direct it towards any particular minister or MP, and not at all towards Smriti Irani,” an unnamed Congress leader was quoted as saying by NDTV.

“That no one saw. I don’t think there is any record, I certainly did not see it. I don’t know who else saw it and whether it happened and who it happened to. I believe it is not there on Sansad TV [government channel that broadcasts parliamentary proceedings] either. So, we have no idea,” said Congress MP Shahi Tharoor.

Opposition lawmaker and ex-Congress leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said the gesture was not towards women parliamentarians and added that the BJP was so deeply attached to hatred, it could not accept a gesture of love.

Meanwhile, Swati Maliwal, the chair of Delhi Commission of Women, called out Ms Irani for remaining silent on BJP MP Brij Bhushan Singh, who is at the centre of sexual harassment allegations by several Olympic wrestlers, while reacting strongly to a “supposed flying kiss”.

“A supposed flying kiss thrown in the air ignited so much fire. A man named Brij Bhushan is sitting two rows back. The one who called Olympic wrestlers into the room and put his hand on their chest, put his hand on their waist and sexually assaulted them. Why don’t you get angry at what he did?” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The controversy erupted after Gandhi’s scathing attack on the BJP and Mr Modi over sectarian violence in Manipur taking place for three months.

In a 30-minute speech, he criticised the PM for not addressing his government’s failure in stopping the violence in Manipur and not visiting the state once since May.

Gandhi, who visited Manipur last month, accused Mr Modi of being “anti-national” and “murdering India in Manipur”.

“As I said in the beginning of my speech that India is a voice. It is the voice of our people, the voice of from the hearts of our people,” he said.

“You have murdered that voice. This means you have murdered Bharat Mata [mother India] in Manipur. By killing the people of Manipur, you have murdered India.

“You are anti-national, you cannot be desh bhakts [patriotic], you cannot be a nation-lover. You have murdered India,” he said.

“This is why PM does not go to Manipur because you have murdered India in Manipur.”

Mr Modi is expected to address the session on Thursday to conclude the debate on the no-confidence motion, which his party is not expected to lose as it has a comfortable majority in parliament.

The motion was presented by the newly formed INDIA alliance, a 26-party opposition bloc, to force Mr Modi to address the issue of Manipur.

Since early May, violence has continued to roil the remote state ruled by the BJP. Mr Modi had only addressed the issue partially, when a horrific video emerged of women who were gang-raped and paraded naked by a mob in Manipur.

While he condemned the sexual assault, he refrained from commenting on the larger conflict.