Jaya Bachchan overreacts, curses PM Modi over ED’s summon to Aishwarya Rai

Bereft of any concrete facts and figures to carry out a healthy discussion, the opposition seemingly has gone berserk. In a recent meltdown, Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan went off the deep end in Rajya Sabha on Monday. Lashing out at the Government, the actor turned politician cursed BJP for its bad days. Interestingly, Mrs Bachchan’s remarks came after ED’s summon to Aishwarya Rai over Panama Papers leak case.

“I curse you”, Jaya Bachchan’s outburst

During a discussion on the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2021, SP MP Jaya lost her calm alleging a “personal” remark by a member of the House against her. Addressing the chair, presided over by Bhuwaneswar Kalitha, Jaya said, “We want justice. We don’t expect justice from there (treasury benches) but can we expect it from you? How are you protecting the members of this house or the 12 members sitting outside? How are you protecting them?”

As the chair interrupted for not speaking on the bill, Mrs Bachchan said, “It is my turn to speak. We have given three to four hours to discuss a clerical error”

In retaliation against Jaya Bachchan’s behaviour towards the Chair, BJP MP Rakesh Sinha raised the objection that led to a verbal spat between her and treasury benches.

The Chair again allowed her to speak on the narcotics subject. “We want justice. Can we expect justice?… What’s going on? There are so many issues we are discussing over a bill which is brought by the government to correct its mistake… Aap gala ghontdijiye hum sabka (go ahead and strangle us). This is terrible,” Bachchan said.

Jaya Bachchan further said that “What is happening in the House is very sad. If you don’t have the slighter respect left for your colleagues, strangle us, you are not allowing us to speak.”

Pointing towards the treasury benches, she also said, “Aapkebure din bohotjaldiaane vale hain” (your bad days are coming soon). I curse you”.

While interacting with the media outside Upper House, she asserted, “I don’t want to make any personal comments on anyone. Whatever has happened was unfortunate. They should not have spoken the way they did. This got me very upset.”

Jugal Lokhandwala, one of the treasury bench MPs whose “personal remark” infuriated SP MP Bachchan, reported that he had meant the whole opposition when he said, “you will not do drama”.

“Later, I was told that Jaya Bachchan is angry in the House. I didn’t make personal remarks against anyone… I said this looking at the whole opposition… the opposition is furious,” he added.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan summoned by ED

Interestingly, Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was grilled by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Delhi for about six hours on the same day. Reportedly, she was summoned by the agency to record her statement in connection with its probe in the Panama Papers case of 2016.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is suspected of having links with an offshore entity in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) created in 2005. Her family was also part of this offshore entity that had an “initial authorised capital of USD 50,000.”  The company, however, was reportedly dissolved in 2008.

Aishwarya’s questioning came weeks after her husband Abhishek Bachchan was also summoned by the agency in another case related to the same set of papers linked to the offshore leaks case.

Dubbed ‘Panama Papers’, an investigation of a stockpile of records from Panamanian legal firm Mossack Fonseca by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in 2016 had named several world leaders and celebrities who allegedly stashed away money abroad in offshore companies.