India is used to hearing stories and seeing videos of politicians in power (sometimes, even of those out of power) browbeating, and at times literally beating, administrative officials.

But, rarely do we come across incidents where those officials hit back, literally. Such a rare instance was seen today in Shimla where Congress MLA Asha Kumari thought it normal to slap a woman police constable.

The constable, however, wasn't ready to go without a fight and slapped Kumari in return, following which the MLA landed another slap before the video of the incident cut away.

The video, shared by news agency ANI on Twitter, shows Kumari stuck in a massive crowd. She, ANI reported, was trying to gain entry to a meeting being held by Congress president Rahul Gandhi to review the grand old party's recent Himachal Pradesh election loss.

At one moment, Kumari, who can be seen arguing, slaps a woman constable to her right, sparking off the series of slaps described above.

Watch the video here:

#WATCH Shimla: Congress MLA Asha Kumari assaults woman constable, gets slapped back. She was being allegedly denied entry by Police in Rahul Gandhi's review meeting (amateur video) pic.twitter.com/puvMRnHKss - ANI (@ANI) December 29, 2017

Soon after the video went viral, Kumari, who won from the Dalhousie seat in the recent Himachal Pradesh election, issued a clarification via an unverified Twitter account.

"The constable on duty first denied entry in my own party's program despite of reading the pass and then used abusive language and tried to manhandle me to which I reacted in self defence," Kumari said. "I have been in public life since last 35 years and have no such unparliamentary history."

WATCH | Himachal Congress MLA slaps woman constable, gets slapped back