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Smriti Irani misled House, says Congress MP
In a letter to Lok Sabha secretary general Snehlata Srivastava, Manickam Tagore, a Congress MP from Tamil Nadu’s Virudhnagar, said that Irani made false assertions on December 13 in the Lok Sabha during an uproar over Rahul Gandhi’s “Rape in India” remark.
A breach of privilege notice has been submitted against union textile, women and child development minister Smriti Irani for her alleged reference to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the winter session of Parliament.
In a letter to Lok Sabha secretary general Snehlata Srivastava, Manickam Tagore, a Congress MP from Tamil Nadu’s Virudhnagar, said that Irani made false assertions on December 13 in the Lok Sabha during an uproar over Rahul Gandhi’s “Rape in India” remark. “The Honourable Member has wilfully misled not only Members of the House, but also the entire nation. The minister had claimed that Rahul Gandhi has given a clarion call to rape women in India in his speech during an election rally on December 12. The minister has knowingly and intentionally misled the Parliament by falsely attributing a statement to Rahul Gandhi,” Tagore wrote, attaching a video clip with his letter.
He claimed that as a “responsible opposition leader”, [Rahul] Gandhi was only “pointing out the increasing violence against the women in the country and the failure of the government to prevent it.”
Referring to an earlier speech by PM Modi in Delhi in which he had described Delhi as the rape capital, Tagore added that the minister has also misled the House as she said that for the first time a political leader had made such a statement.
Rahul Gandhi’s ‘rape in India’ remark at a rally in Jharkhand had led to an uproar in both the House of the Parliament on the last day of the winter session. While the BJP demanded that he must apologize, the Congress led a counter-attack.
Later, Rahul turned the tables on the BJP by saying he won’t apologize for his remarks as he was not Rahul “Savarkar”.
The privilege complaint comes close on the heels of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla forwarding a similar notice from BJP MP Pragya Thakur against Rahul for calling her a terrorist.
According to the rules, any such notice is sent to the Chair of the House and he or she takes a call on whether to reject it or send it to the privileges committee of the House.
