South Delhi MP and BJP leader Ramesh Bidhuri is no stranger to controversy and much of it is because of his offensive statements towards political rivals and fellow MPs as well.
Even before the communal slurs he levelled against Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Danish Ali in the Lok Sabha on Thursday evening, he had been the subject of a complaint by five women Lok Sabha MPs in 2015. Then Congress MP from Supaul Ranjeet Ranjan, supported by Supriya Sule of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), then Congress MP Sushmita Dev, P.K. Shrimati Teacher of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Arpita Ghosh of the Trinamool Congress, made a complaint to then Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan about “abusive and sexist” language used by Mr. Bidhuri in the Lok Sabha.
Several of his speeches during poll campaigning, especially targeting Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal have created controversy, especially one in 2019, when at a meeting in Mehrauli he used some of the objectionable phrases levelled at Mr. Ali, in the presence of Union Minister Giriraj Singh. At that time Mr. Bidhuri refused admit to any wrongdoing and in fact said that he would “say this again and again”.
A three-term MLA from Tughlakabad in Delhi and two-term MP now, Mr. Bidhuri, 62, dabbling in students politics around 1983 as a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), got actively involved in the BJP around 1993. He served in various capacities in the BJP organisation and was for a time general secretary in the Delhi unit as well.
A law graduate from Chaudhary Charan Singh University in Meerut, he is considered a good organiser and mobiliser of crowds, often being called upon by the national team of the BJP for getting crowds to the party headquarters after poll victories. With most Opposition parties individually writing to Lok Sabha Speaker to refer Mr. Bidhuri’s behaviour on Thursday night in the Lok Sabha to the Privileges Committee, he may find that he may have talked himself into a corner after all.
