A dispute erupted in the Rajasthan Assembly late Friday after BJP MLA Gopal Sharma repeatedly referred to Congress chief whip and senior politician Rafeek Khan as a “Pakistani” during a discussion on grants for the Urban Development and Housing and Local Self-Government departments.
The remarks triggered strong protests from the Opposition, led by legislators from the Congress.
Sharma, representing Civil Lines, Jaipur, made the remarks against Khan, the Congress MLA from Adarsh Nagar in Jaipur.
Sharma’s comments came when Khan was comparing the Congress and BJP governments. Khan, at one point, made an indirect reference to Sharma and asked the chairperson to “impart” some wisdom to him.
Rafeek Khan reacted to Sharma’s remarks with a Jigar Moradabadi couplet:
“Unka jo farz hai wo ahl-e-siyasat (politicians) janein
Mera paigham mohabbat hai jahan tak pahunche”
(“The duty is for the politicians to understand, my message is love—may it spread everywhere.”)
Leader of Opposition Tika Ram Jully intervened, “What is this? Is this some kind of joke? A man just says whatever he wants,” while Chairperson Sandeep Sharma intervened and asked the BJP MLA to sit down.
“This is a very serious matter; it is wrong to hurt someone’s honor and dignity in this manner,” Jully added.
Jully later took to X, calling the remark “absurd and disgraceful,” “intolerable and condemnable,” and urged Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani and Leader of the House Bhajanlal Sharma to take cognizance of the matter and take action against the MLA.
He stated, “The level of rhetoric among BJP leaders seems to be plummeting day by day in a race to outdo each other. They see no difference between speaking in the Assembly and giving speeches on the streets. They forget that Rafiq Khan comes from the land of Shekhawati, where people of all religions join the army and proudly lay down their lives for this country.”
Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra said, “What can one expect from a party other than hatred, violence, and abuse? The indecent remark made by BJP MLA Gopal Sharma against the opposition’s chief whip, MLA Rafiq Khan, in the Assembly is extremely shameful. The politics of the BJP and every word of their MLA are filled with feelings of hatred and violence.”
“Where have the ‘hateful’ shameless ones gone, who used to scream in the Assembly about maintaining decorum?” he asked.
Sharma has previously made similar remarks about Khan. In March 2024, during a Jaipur Municipal Corporation Heritage Board meeting, he stated that he would not let Jaipur become a “mini-Pakistan” and told reporters that Khan was trying to become the “Jinnah of Jaipur,” alluding to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.
