Renuka Chowdhury will accuse Prime Minister Modi of defamation over an alleged "Surpanakha" comment

Renuka Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress, has said that she would file a defamation lawsuit against Prime Minister Modi over an alleged "Surpanakha" statement he allegedly made in Parliament back in 2018. The former MP posted a video of Modi's address on Twitter, in which he compared her laughing to the Ramayana, a Hindu epic.

As Chowdhury said, "I was addressed as Surpanakha on the house's floor by this sexist megalonyc. I'll accuse him of libel in court. See how quickly the courts respond now." In the video, PM Modi ostensibly addresses other BJP lawmakers and requests that they give Chowdhury the floor so that he may continue speaking since this is the first time since the Ramayana television series that they have had the opportunity to hear the same legendary laughing.

The accusation against PM Modi by Chowdhury comes in the wake of Rahul Gandhi's 2019 criminal defamation case conviction for his statement about the surname Modi. According to a Parliament notification, he was expelled from office after a Surat court found him guilty of slander and gave him a two-year jail term.

In response to a complaint made by BJP Legislator and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi, Gandhi was accused of saying, "How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?" The Congress leader's attorney, Babu Mangukiya, said that the court gave him bail and postponed the punishment for 30 days so that he could appeal to a higher court.

On April 13, 2019, the Wayanad MP for the Lok Sabha made the comments while speaking at a rally in Kolar, Karnataka, as part of the Lok Sabha election campaign.