Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday forwarded to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan a privilege motion against Congress president Rahul Gandhi for allegedly mocking finance minister Arun Jaitley.
BJP MP Bhupendra Yadav had on December 28 submitted a privilege notice under Rule 187, alleging that Gandhi had “intentionally, maliciously and disrespectfully twisted” the name of Leader of the House and Arun Jaitley in a tweet.
In the tweet, Gandhi had questioned Jaitley’s claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “did not question” his predecessor Dr Manmohan Singh’s commitment to the nation when he accused him of conspiring with Pakistan to affect the outcome of the Gujarat elections. Gandhi had spelt the finance minister’s surname differently while thanking him “for reminding India that our PM never means what he says or says what he means”.
“Dear Mr Jaitlie — thank you for reminding India that our PM never means what he says or says what he means. #BJPLies,” Gandhi said, while putting out a video of the prime minister’s speech against his predecessor and Jaitley’s remarks made in Rajya Sabha.
At a rally in Palanpur earlier this month, Modi had triggered a controversy by asking Singh and former vice-president Hamid Ansari to reveal the purpose behind their “secret meeting” with Pakistan diplomats at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s house during the assembly elections in Gujarat.
{{/usCountry}}At a rally in Palanpur earlier this month, Modi had triggered a controversy by asking Singh and former vice-president Hamid Ansari to reveal the purpose behind their “secret meeting” with Pakistan diplomats at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s house during the assembly elections in Gujarat.
{{/usCountry}}Naidu had rebuked Congress for demanding an apology from Modi for his controversial remark. “Nobody is going to give apology. Nothing happened in the House. The statement was not made here,” Naidu had said.
“Your notice is under my consideration. I have already told you, I will be taking action immediately, but it’s not within the purview of Rajya Sabha, finally it has to go to Lok Sabha. I will take necessary decision at the earliest,” Naidu told Yadav during the winter session of Parliament.
In 2016, the Congress president was sent a show-cause notice by a parliamentary ethics committee over allegations made by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy that Rahul was a British citizen.
(With agency inputs)