Renuka Chowdhury brings puppy to Parliament: Five times she courted controversy

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Chowdhury arrived on the Parliament premises with a puppy on Monday. It was the first day of Parliament's Winter session, and the sight of the canine raised many hackles. Other members objected to her act.

However, the derision escalated into outrage when Chowdhury likened the pawed animal to the MPs and ministers in the House. Defending her act, she said, "Those who bite are inside Parliament,” a remark the BJP dubbed as an insult to both MPs and the institution itself.

After the Rajya Sabha MP from Telangana brought the puppy in the Parliament, she faced a backlash. Reacting to it, she said that she saw the puppy wandering on the road and picked it up worrying about its safety and brought it with her to the Parliament.

She said, "I was on my way. A scooter collided with a car. This little puppy was wandering on the road. I thought it would get hit. So I picked it up, put it in the car, came to Parliament, and sent it back. The car left, and so did the dog. So what's the point of this discussion?" She implied, "The real ones who bite are inside Parliament. They run the government."

This comment of the MP intensified the criticism, drawing sharp reactions from political opponents. It added fuel to the controversy. However, this is not for the first time that Renuka Chowdhury has courted controversy.

1. During a campaign speech ahead of the 2014 general elections, Renuka Chowdhury compared Narendra Modi to Ravana. This analogy created a political storm. Her comments were condemned. Later, she went into a damage-control mode and tried to clarify that her comments were directed at what she saw as the BJP’s "arrogance”, and it was not a personal attack on Modi. Senior BJP leaders condemned the comparison and said it reflected the intolerance towards Modi, whose popularity was on the rise. The episode became yet another political flashpoint in an already charged election season.

2. In 2018, during a Rajya Sabha debate, Chowdhury burst into laughter, which forced then–Vice President and Chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu to pull her up. Naidu said the outburst was "unbecoming” of a parliamentarian. Within hours, the footage went viral. A fiery Chowdhury didn't take Naidu's reaction lightly. She thundered that she can't be blamed for her natural laughter, adding that the Chairperson had no right to "judge her laughter”. The exchange triggered a debate on gender, propriety, and parliamentary conduct.

3. During the KCR era, Chowdhury made many scathing remarks regarding women's safety. She once accused the Telangana government of presiding over a state where women are unsafe even to step outside their homes. Two years back, she said: "There is no safety for women, the crime rates are alarming, and it is a national shame that women are not safe in this state...We cannot even protect our children... That shows the absolute irresponsibility of the ruling government...The chief minister should hang his head in shame..." Her comments generated a political storm, with BRS leaders hitting out at her for "sensationalism” and trying to tarnish the government's record.

4. In 2015, Chowdhury faced legal trouble after the Khammam Urban Police booked her under the SC/ST Atrocities Act, alleging that she had accepted a Rs 1.10-crore "bribe” from a local doctor in exchange for promising a party ticket ahead of previous year’s elections. The police filed the case, acting on a complaint filed by one Kalavathi, widow of Dr Bhukya Ramji, an active Congress leader who passed away on October 14, 2014. Renuka vehemently denied the allegations. But the controversy raged on, until she was acquitted. This year, a court in Khammam acquitted Chowdhury in the case due to lack of evidence.

5. In 2009, in response to Sri Ram Sena's Valentine's Day threat, Chowdhury appealed to the youth to "swarm" pubs and confront the so-called "moral police brigade". Later that year, in the wake of the Mangalore pub attack by Sri Ram Sena that year, she dubbed the city as having been "talibanised". Her comments forced Mangalore’s mayor to file a case against her. She was accused of glorifying isolated incidents and making sweeping generalisations about the city.