Jaya Bachchan loses cool in RS, curses treasury benches as Aishwarya Rai grilled by ED

New Delhi, Dec 20: Samajwadi Party (SP) Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan on Monday slammed the BJP over a personal attack against her and cursed the saffron party that it will face bad days soon.

"Aap logon ke bure din aayenge" (your bad days will come)," she cursed the treasury benches after the Chair asked to participate in the ongoing discussion on the 'Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

Participating in the debate on NDPS (Amendment) Bill, Bachchan chose to raise the issue of the 12 suspended opposition members and said Bhubaneswar Kalita, who was in the chair, himself used to protest in the Well of the House. This evoked a sharp reaction from BJP members. "I don't want to thank you because I don't know whether I should remember when you used to walk into the Well shouting...or today when you are sitting in the chair," she said when called to speak on the bill.

Rakesh Sinha (BJP) objected to her remarks and said she was casting aspersions on the chair. But Bachchan continued her speech and lamented that at a time when the country is facing several important issues, the House has allocated 3-4 hours for a debate on rectifying a "clerical error" in the Bill.

"What can we expect from you? What is going on? There are so many issues we are discussing over a Bill which is brought by the government to correct its mistake," she said. "Aap gala ghont dijie ham sabka (you please strangulate us)," Bachchan criticised Chair for not listening to the Opposition.

She then added, "You should be fair and not support any particular party."

The actress-turned-politician asked the Chair to take action against the members who made personal attacks against her. However, the Chair said that unsuitable words would be expunged from the record.

Her outburst came on the day the Enforcement Directorate quizzed her son-in-law Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for questioning in the Panama Papers leak case.

The 48-year-old daughter-in-law of superstar Amitabh Bachchan was questioned over allegations of stashing wealth abroad were made.

The ED has been probing the case since 2016 when the global leaks came to light. It later issued notices to the Bachchan family asking them to explain their foreign remittances since 2004 under the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).

Some other instances of alleged irregularities linked to the family are also under the scanner of the federal probe agency, the officials said. With inputs from PTI