Nagpur: Chandrapur MP Pratibha Dhanorkar on Wednesday said that a viral video showing Ramtek MP Shyamkumar Barve “slapping” her on a bus was friendly banter among MPs and no ground for a complaint.The video was shot on Nov 1, when Congress MPs were travelling by bus to the party’s ‘Vote Bachao Desh Bachao’ rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. The 10-second video shows Barve lightly slapping Dhanorkar while standing next to her seat and chatting.There were reports of an email being sent to the Congress high command demanding action against Barve for slapping a female MP. Dhanorkar questioned whether the email carried the name of any authorised person and said those complaining could be her or Barve’s opponents.She said the friendly banter involved all MPs on the bus, who are like brothers and sisters. Dhanorkar said that if someone had hit her, “I would have complained immediately.” She described Barve as an elder brother and added that there was no point in attaching importance to the matter when attention should be on what was happening in the country and in Delhi.Barve claimed the video had been cropped and that the full clip was on his social media account. Barve said MPs travelled in three to four buses during the protests. “We live there as a family and our protest has been going on for the last several days,” the Ramtek MP said.
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