Heckled frequently, Rahul Gandhi apparently blew a flying kiss towards the Treasury benches in the Lok Sabha before collecting a sheaf of papers and leaving the House following his intervention in the no-confidence motion discussion on Wednesday.

Attention was drawn to Rahul’s gesture by Union minister for women and child development Smriti Irani in her intervention that followed his speech. Soon, several BJP MPs submitted a complaint against him to Speaker Om Birla, demanding action.

“I want to register my objection to what the member who spoke before me did before he left the House…. It is only a misogynistic man who can give a flying kiss to a Parliament which seats female members of Parliament. Such undignified behaviour has never been seen in this Parliament before. The country has seen the culture of the (Nehru-Gandhi) family...,’’ Irani said in between her speech.

Rahul apparently blew the flying kiss in the general direction of the Treasury benches, seemingly in response to their booing.

In July 2018 — again during a discussion on a no-trust motion — Rahul had walked across to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hugged him, to the surprise of everyone. Rahul had then returned to his designated seat in the Lok Sabha and sat down with a wink which was all captured on camera.

The BJP flagged Irani’s comments on the flying kiss on its social media timeline and party leaders echoed her views on him.

The Congress sought to project the gesture as his way of carrying forward the idea of “mohabbat ki dukaan” in “nafrat ka bazaar (shop of love in the marketplace of hatred)”.

Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena-Thackeray) — who was watching the debate from the visitor’s gallery — described it as a gesture of affection in keeping with his “mohabbat ki dukaan” endeavour. “You all have got so used to hate that you cannot accept love,” she told PTI.

Minister of state for textiles Darshana Jardosh reminded Chaturvedi of an old tweet of hers complaining about the Congress reinstating “goons” who had misbehaved with her when she was in the party.

The Rajya Sabha MP shot back on Twitter: “Yes Darshana ji, I know the difference between assault, harassment directed at a woman and casual gesture directed at treasury benches. Also yes. I have had the guts to speak up on every issue, including mine. Wish you’ll as women ministers stand up for women of Manipur, Women Wrestlers, missing women of India and many more such shameful incidents.”