BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Wednesday reminded Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi of the 2012 clash between the Congress and Samajwadi Party MPs in the Lok Sabha over a Bill for reservation for SC/ST during which he had told her “you are not a queen”.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha on the Women’s Reservation Bill, Dubey, who is BJP MP from Jharkhand’s Godda said, “When the Bill was introduced by their alliance partners, the Congress people beat their own alliance partner MPs in the promotion of the reservation Bill.”

He was discussing the December 2012 incident in Lok Sabha.

He said, “In this same House, when V. Narayanasamy was presenting a Bill on the promotional quota for SCs/STs, Samajwadi Party’s MP Yashvir Singh snatched the Bill from his hand and tore it down. In this same Parliament, Sonia Gandhi ji was the first to come and hold him by his collar.”

“At that time, I rushed to her and told her you are not our dictator, not a queen, you cannot resort to violence,” the BJP MP claimed.

He said that even Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh himself said the party MPs would not have survived had the BJP not been there.

“You had tried to kill the MPs,” he alleged.

In December 2012, SP MP Singh snatched a copy of the Constitution (117th Amendment) Bill from Narayanasamy in the Lok Sabha. The incident led to a commotion in the House. It had triggered a war of words outside between the Congress and its ally SP, which strongly opposed the reservation in promotion for SCs and STs (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) in government jobs.

Before Dubey spoke, Sonia Gandhi said that she and the Congress supported the Women Reservation Bill and also demanded that it be enforced immediately, and along with that, arrangements be made for reservations to women from the SC, ST and OBC communities by holding a caste census.

On Tuesday, the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, was introduced in the Lok Sabha in the supplementary list of business.

(The story has been published via a syndicated feed with a modified headline.)