Jaya Bachchan again objects to 'Amitabh' in her name

New Delhi, Aug 5 (IANS) Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Jaya Bachchan on Monday once again raised an objection when Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar called out her full name in the House and labelled it as a "new drama" started in the Parliament. 

She remarked, "Sir, I hope you know the meaning of Amitabh. I mean, I am proud of the association with my marriage and my husband, but I am just saying that I am very happy and proud of my husband's achievements."

"This is a new drama started by you all. This did not use to happen before," the Rajya Sabha MP added.

In response, the Vice President explained that there is a provision to change the name that appears on the election certificate.

Stressing that the "entire country is proud" of Amitabh Bachchan's achievement, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar stated, "However, Jaya Ji, the name that appears in the election certificate is what is used, and you can get the name changed; there is a provision for that."

The SP MP also questioned why Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar did not add his wife's name after his.

To which, Khattar sarcastically replied, "As for my wife's name in front of mine... not in this birth (since Khattar is unmarried); for this, you will have to wait until the next birth."

This was followed by the SP MP's earlier objection to being addressed as "Jaya Amitabh Bachchan" by Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh during the House proceedings on July 29.

Jaya Bachchan objected by saying, "Sir, only Jaya Bachchan would have sufficed," stressing her unease about women being identified only by their husband's names as if "they don't have their own identity."

In her supplementary question, the actor-turned-politician asked: "Former Haryana Chief Minister is here. Gurgaon was declared a smart city, but recently, the water was logged up to the waist there. I wanted to go there for some work but was unable to do so. If the condition of a smart city is like this, how many more capital cities in this country will be included in the smart city list?"

Khattar clarified, "Gurugram is not included in the smart city list. There are only two smart cities in Haryana -- Faridabad and Karnal."

He added, "I would like to tell all the members that I was the Haryana Chief Minister for 9.5 years. When I became the Chief Minister in 2014, I remember IFCO Chowk, Signature Tower, Rajiv Chowk, Honda Chowk, etc., there are three-layer roads, including normal ones, flyovers, and underpasses."

"Heavy rainfall often causes this, but we will look into this issue. This is because of a natural cause. If we talk about Gurugram, it is an iconic city, and we should be proud of it. Today, out of Fortune 500 companies, 300 are in Gurugram," he said.