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Dhankhar rejects Congress privilege notice against Shah
Dhankhar also urged the Ethics Committee to draft fresh guidelines for members for adherence, pointing out that members rush to invoke breach of privilege, and frowning on such notices being made public even before they have been considered.
NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha Chairman, Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday rejected a privilege notice filed by the Congress against union home minister, Amit Shah and said the minister’s statement that the opposition party had objected to, was authenticated by a1948 government press release and there was “absolute adherence to truth as vindicated by document authenticated by the minister.”
Dhankhar also urged the Ethics Committee to draft fresh guidelines for members for adherence, pointing out that members rush to invoke breach of privilege, and frowning on such notices being made public even before they have been considered.
“We rush to the media, give it traction, try to tarnish image. And I have said on a number of occasions, this House will not be a platform to ruin [the] reputations of people,” he said.
The Ethics Committee has the mandate to oversee the moral and ethical conduct of members and to examine cases referred to it with reference to ethical and other misconduct of members.
The Congress party on Wednesday moved a privilege motion against Shah for “casting aspersions on Sonia Gandhi” with a “premeditated motive to malign her reputation” during a discussion on the Disaster Management Bill 2024. The minister had said that the PM’s Relief Fund under the UPA rule was solely controlled by one family, unlike the PM CARES fund under the Modi government.
Giving his ruling, the chairman said, in the notice given by Congress’s chief whip, Jairam Ramesh under Rule 188 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States, Rajya Sabha against Shah, the assertion is that aspersions have been cast on Sonia Gandhi, member of Rajya Sabha and chairperson of Congress Parliamentary Party.
After reading the lines that the Congress had objected to, the chairman said, he has taken note of the government press release issued by PIB on January 24,1948 that was cited by Shah to authenticate his statement.
“I have taken note of the authentication wherein Shri Amit Shah, has indicated, that verifying my comments made on the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) during the discussion on the Disaster Management Amendment Bill 2024 in the Rajya Sabha on 25th March 2025, present before you the press release issued by the Government of India on 24th January 1948,” he said.
Quoting the release, the chairman said there is mention that Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund “will be managed by a committee consisting of: the Prime Minister, the President of the Indian National Congress, the Deputy Prime Minister...and there are some other Members.”
The Chairman went on to say there was no transgression by the minister. “I have carefully gone through it. I find there has been no transgression. There has been absolute adherence to truth, which is vindicated by a document that is available to the members and that being the situation, I cannot persuade myself to accord any acceptance to this Notice of Question of Privilege against Shah.”
He expressed disapproval over the practice of filing breach of privilege and releasing the information to the media.
He then read out a report by the first Ethics Committee that was headed by former Chief Minister of Maharashtra S. B. Chauhan. “The report (that was) rendered on 1st December 1998, after wider consultations across parliamentarians, legislatures and public associations...says, firstly, members must conduct themselves in a manner that upholds the dignity of Parliament and preserves their personal credibility. Secondly, members bear the responsibility of maintaining exemplary standards of morality, dignity, decorum and values in their public conduct.”
Dhankhar urged BJP MP Ghanshyam Tiwari, who heads the Ethics Commitee to look into the SB Chauhan Committee report on ethics and “take note of the intervening situations mostly brought about by technological developments and social media and evolve our mechanism, fresh guidelines for members for adherence.”
