BJP moves privilege notice against Sonia
In their complaint to Dhankhar on Monday, BJP lawmakers alleged that Sonia Gandhi’s comment was unparliamentary, warranted serious consideration and disciplinary action.
NEW DELHI: Lawmakers from the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday submitted a notice of breach of parliamentary privilege, ethics, and propriety against Congress MP Sonia Gandhi for the “use of derogatory and slanderous words against the President of India” to “undermine the dignity’ of the nation’s highest office”.
The notice was submitted to Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar.
A similar notice was also submitted to the speaker of the Lok Sabha, Om Birla, by a dozen BJP MPs against Independent MP, Pappu Yadav for his comments against the President.
The notice came three days after Gandhi’s comment on President Droupadi Murmu kicked up a political row, prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hit out at the Congress, and the Rashtrapati Bhavan to say that the remark hurt the dignity of the high office.
After the President’s address opened the budget session of Parliament on Friday morning, Gandhi was asked by reporters outside the House about Murmu’snearly hour-long speech. “The President was getting very tired by the end...She could hardly speak, poor thing,” the former Congress chief was heard saying in clips in what appeared to be a reference to how long the address was. Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi described the speech as “boring” in one of the clips. To be sure, the President’s customary address at the start of the budget session is cleared by the Union government.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan in its statement said, “...Indeed, she has believed that speaking up for the marginalised communities, for women and farmers, as she was doing during the course of her address, can never be tiring.” Later that day, Modi alleged that Gandhi’s comment insulted tribal communities.
In their complaint to Dhankhar on Monday, BJP lawmakers alleged that Gandhi’s comment was unparliamentary, warranted serious consideration and disciplinary action. They said such comments not only undermined the dignity of the office but also violated the sanctity of parliamentary procedures and conventions.
Pointing out that parliamentary ethics and code of conduct prescribe that no member should utter defamatory words against others, the lawmakers said Gandhi’s comments assumed significance as it concerned the President .
“This is a clear manifestation of the elite and anti-tribal mindset of Sonia Gandhi who is yet to understand the struggle and sensitivity of the tribal poor. Furthermore, the statement is inconsistent with established rules of conduct and parliamentary ethics and etiquette, which mandate members to uphold the dignity of constitutional offices and refrain from making disparaging remarks,” said the notice, seen by HT.
The signatories -- which include Ramilaben Bara, Chunnilal Garasiya, B Phagnon Konyak, Devender Pratap Singh and Sumer Singh Solanki -- pointed out that given the gravity of the situation, urgent cognisance of this matter should be taken and appropriate disciplinary action against Gandhi be initiated.
In the complaint against independent lawmaker from Purnea, Pappu Yadav, the BJP MPs said his comments referring to Murmu as a “rubber stamp” lowered the dignity of the House.
“The anti-women and anti-Tribal comments made by Pappu Yadav are derogatory and have caused harm to the dignity of the President’s office,” the letter in Hindi said.
Yadav called Murmu a “rubber stamp”, shortly after the speech.
The lawmakers added that the President’s office was above party politics and partisanship.
A delegation of BJP’s tribal lawmakers led by Faggan Singh Kulaste also separately submitted a memorandum to Dhankhar and Birla, demanding action against Gandhi and Yadav. The MPs said they condemned the statements which were an “insult, not only to the President but to the entire tribal community of India”.
