India: Jaya Bachchan gets in heated clash with Rajya Sabha Chair Jagdeep Dhankhar - 'Don't school me'

Opposition parties staged a walkout in Rajya Sabha (upper house of the Indian Parliament)on Friday (Aug 9) in support of Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan. The walkout led by Congress stalwart Sonia Gandhi, happened after Jaya Bachchan got into a heated exchange with Indian Vice President andRajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar over being introduced as 'Jaya Amitabh Bachchan'.

This is not the first time Jaya Bachchan objected to being called by her husband, Amitabh Bachchan's name. She had expressed her strong disapproval of this practice.

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"It was a humiliating experience...," Jaya told reporters after the walkout.

She added, "Whatever is said from the Chair...is allowed. Outside the Chair, the individual is like us.. an MP. I objected to the tone used by the Chair. We are not school children and some of us are even senior citizens. I was upset with the tone... especially when the Leader of the Opposition (Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge) stood up to speak he (the Chair) switched the mike off..."

"And, on top of that, every time words that are unparliamentary are used... like 'nuisance', like 'you may be a celebrity but I don't care'. I am not asking him to care! Nobody has ever spoken the way they do now in Parliament. What is the problem? It is so disrespectful to women," the SP MP continued.

What went down in Rajya Sabha between Jagdeep Dhankhar and Jaya Bachchan?

On Friday, when Jaya Bachchan objected to being introduced as 'Jaya Amitabh Bachchan' and VPDhankhar said, "Don't school me."

"You may be a celebrity (but) you have to understand the decorum..." he added.

Jaya Bachchan demanded an apology from the Rajya Sabha Chairperson and said, "Sir, I, Jaya Amitabh Bachchan (to chuckles from some benches), want to say this...I am an actor. I understand body language and expression (to applause) and, forgive me, but your tone is not acceptable. We are colleagues, sir... you may be sitting in the Chair but I remember when I went to school..."

Dhankhar asked her to sit in return.

Ms Bachchan, though, stood firm and demanded an apology. "I need an apology from the Chair," she said.

"Jayaji, you have earned a great reputation. You know the actor is subject to the director... you have not seen what I have seen from here. Every day... I don't want to repeat, I don't want a schooling. I am a person who has gone out of the way ... and you say 'my tone'?" Dhankar said.

(With inputs from agencies)