The incident of alleged flying kiss blown in the Lok Sabha by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has taken the social media by a storm. As per the accusation by Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani, the incident took place on the penultimate day of the monsoon session of the Parliament. She claimed that such indecent behaviour was never displayed in the history of the Lok Sabha and called Gandhi a misogynistic man.
Irani’s constant display of hatred towards Gandhi is irrational. Her statements are neither related to the something valid nor do they hold any truth. The respective incident is no different either. Mystery shrouds around when exactly the incident took place and how it reflected in her speech immediately. As per Irani herself, Gandhi made the gesture while leaving the House. So the question remains when did she see Gandhi making the alleged gesture when she was in the middle of her speech. Irani’s speech was right after Gandhi’s and it would be fair that such an arrangement was intentional.
Irani could have spoken before Gandhi or after other parliamentarians. However, since Irani has to address the issues raised by Gandhi, her speech was arranged after him and that is for certain. There are two versions of this fiasco. As per Irani, Gandhi made the gesture towards her while another version says that he blew a flying kiss towards other MPs while leaving the House. Which version is true? Or are either of them true at all?
There is a third version of this drama as well. BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya posted a video of the alleged incident on a microblogging site and this video has exposed it all. The gesture made by Gandhi in this video is of him during his speech and was captured by government channel Sansad TV which broadcasts proceedings of both the Houses of Indian Parliament. Gandhi told Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to sit down as suddenly standing up was obstructing Gandhi’s view. There was nothing flying kiss-like in the respective video which proves that the information disseminated through this video was false.
The people have identified the fallacies and have heavily trolled BJP on social media for their handling of the issue. Some other women BJP MPs have accused Gandhi just like Irani did and have filed a complaint with the Speaker of the House. However, the situation has proved their accusations to be false. As per the second version, files fell out of Gandhi’s hands as he was making his way out of the Parliament which is when BJP MPs started laughing at him. This is when Gandhi blew a flying kiss however this version remains unverified. There are a number of cameras in Lok Sabha and not a single camera captured the incident. If any of the cameras in the House had captured the video of the alleged flying kiss then the truth would have been out long back.
In short, until and unless the video comes out, Irani’s allegations stand baseless. And if at all Gandhi has waved the flying kiss then it would not matter in today’s time. Flying kiss is considered as a symbol of showing affection while saying goodbye and BJP’s own leaders have done so multiple times. Irani has earned a reputation for spreading lies about Rahul Gandhi. She had alleged that despite starting Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari, Rahul had not paid homage to the memorial of Swami Vivekanand. Now in an ideal life, it should not matter to Irani whether Gandhi visits the memorial or not but she did speak something which was a blatant lie. In reality, Gandhi did visit Swami Vivekananda’s memorial, a video of which later made the rounds on social media. Irani fell flat on her face. In Lok Sabha too, she held Gandhi responsible for Manipur violence. There should be limits while accusing someone especially when one is in a position of power. Irani’s party should put some restrictions on her or it will damage the party itself.