NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kalyan Banerjee managed to both amuse and agitate his fellow parliamentarians with his wit and pointed comments in the Lok Sabha session on Tuesday.
The session saw Banerjee poking fun at the ruling BJP and its leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while also addressing his past controversies.
The highlight of Banerjee’s speech came when Speaker Om Birla asked him to direct his attention towards him. Banerjee, not missing a beat, responded, “Sir, I am looking at you only… There is no one smarter in this House than you. There is no gentleman like you… Everyone looks at you only.”
He continued with a humorous jab, “Yaha ek good actress bhi aaya lekin unko bhi nahi dekhta hu sir main bs aapko dekhta hoon. aap hi aap main mere ander mein,” causing the opposition benches to burst into laughter.
(Many good actresses also came here but I am looking only towards you. There are no other gentlemen (worth looking at).”)
Banerjee had previously faced accusations of similar antics, notably his mimicry of Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar during a December 19, 2023 protest, which drew strong condemnation from the BJP.
Dhankhar had then stated in the House that he would not tolerate any disrespect to Parliament or the constitutional post of the Vice President. Banerjee defended his actions by asserting that mimicry is a form of expression and that the right to dissent and protest is fundamental.
Reacting to Banerjee’s latest comments, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his outrage. “Yesterday ‘Hindu Hinsak Hai’; jibes at Chair by Rahul Gandhi. Now the most atrocious and disgusting comments aimed at the Speaker’s Chair by Kalyan Banerjee who even mocked the posture of VP Jagdeep Dhankar,” he posted.
Banerjee also took a dig at the BJP’s electoral slogan “abki baar 400 paar,” which promised over 400 seats. “They played the game with ‘abki Paar 400 paar.’ There are many games, and chu-kit-kit is one of them,” Banerjee remarked, referring to a children’s game popular in West Bengal. He explained that the slogan ‘400’ resonated loudly with ‘chu’ and ended with ‘kit-kit’. “You only won 240 seats and still lost that game,” he said, eliciting more laughter from his party members, including Mahua Moitra and first-time MP Saayoni Ghosh.
Banerjee’s speech, part of the opposition’s reply to the motion of thanks to the President’s address, was peppered with humour and sharp critiques of the BJP and Modi.