The Left leader said that he has been inundated with threatening calls and obscene messages and wrote in his letter that "the provocation for these comes from the statements made in the House by the minister concerned." (File photo)
CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury has moved a privilege motion against Union Education Minister Smriti Irani for making "baseless allegations" against him. He also said that he has been getting threatening calls and obscene messages after Ms Irani's speech in the upper house on February 26.
In his letter to the Rajya Sabha Chairman, Mr Yechury wrote, "During the course of the discussion on 26.02.2016, the Honorable Minister made baseless allegations against me imputing motives that are completely false."
Attaching a transcript of his speech in the upper house, Mr Yechury wrote: "These allegations suggest that I made some comments denigrating Hindu God 'Durga'. There is no reference to anything of this nature in the course of the long discussion in the House."
He said that he has been inundated with threatening calls and obscene messages and wrote in his letter that "the provocation for these comes from the statements made in the House by the minister concerned."
Mr Yechury's letter refers to Ms Irani's reply in the Rajya Sabha on February 26 while debating the JNU arrests and the suicide of the dalit student leader Rohith Vemula.
The HRD minister had read out a pamplet -- allegedly circulated by a section of JNU students -- to make the point that some students made derogatory references to the deity.
While Opposition members strongly protested the objectionable remarks on Goddess Durga, Mr Yechury and Ms Irani got into a verbal duel on the veracity of the pamphlet.
Even though Ms Irani never blamed Mr Yechury directly for insulting Durga, she reportedly said "none living in the country should denigrate the Goddess."
This, Mr Yechury argues, gives an impression that he made some insulting remarks.
Mr Yechury said there were, at least, three Facebook accounts where this portion of the minister's speech was quoted to argue that he insulted the Goddess. His phone number was put on these FB pages with a plea that Mr Yechury "should be taught a lesson."
"It has never happened before that a unfounded allegation by a Union Minister becomes the provocation for RSS trolls," Mr Yechury told NDTV.
The matter will now be examined by the office of the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha to decide if it merits a privilege motion against the HRD minister.