New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP, Raghav Chadha has been suspended from the Upper House of Parliament, pending a report by the Committee of Privileges. The suspension of another AAP Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Singh, who was earlier suspended for the rest of the Monsoon Session, has also now been amended to the time till the report of the privileges committee is filed.
Chadha is the third AAP MP, after Singh and Lok Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Rinku, to have been suspended during this Parliament session, which was adjourned sine dine Friday.
The motion for Chadha’s suspension was moved by leader of House Piyush Goyal Friday, “for including the name of MPs without content in a list of members of a proposed select committee in a breach of privilege of the members… which is unbecoming of a member of the Rajya Sabha”.
On Monday, Chadha had landed in a controversy during the debate on the Delhi services bill after Union Home Minister Amit Shah demanded privilege proceedings against him, claiming five MPs had complained that their names were listed in the proposed committee by “forging” their signatures.
While Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh, who was the presiding officer of the house when the row erupted, had announced that “the matter will be enquired [into]”, Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar had referred the matter to the Privileges Committee for investigation Tuesday.
Following Chadha’s suspension, his office issued a statement saying that the suspension was a result of his press conference Thursday “defending himself in the alleged breach of matter”, and “nowhere did Piyush Goyal’s motion for suspension or notice served by Privilege Committee mentions the words “forgery or fake, signatures, farziwada etc. It doesn’t even remotely allege anything to this effect”.
Earlier, while leaving the Parliament House after the bill was passed Monday, Chadha had told the media that he will respond to the privilege committee if a notice was served to him. He refused to comment on the allegations raised by Shah.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Sanjay Singh, an AAP spokesperson had said in a statement that “An unconstitutional bill was cleared by the Parliament and the union home minister was desperately demanding that Raghav Chadha’s name be sent to the privilege committee. Is he unaware of the rules? Nowhere does the rules say that a member’s signature is required for his name to be added to a proposed select committee. He [Amit Shah] is deceiving the people.”
The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was passed Monday night by the Rajya Sabha in spite of the opposition’s concerted efforts to stall the legislation, including sending it to a select committee of the House.
The passage of the bill paves the way for the Delhi services ordinance, which takes away the powers of the Delhi government to transfer and post civil servants, to now become a law.
Also read: 131 votes in favour, 102 against — Rajya Sabha passes Delhi services bill amid high drama
‘Disorder cannot be allowed to be order of the House’
Referring to the allegation against Chadha while moving the motion for his suspension, Goyal said, “When the motion [on the select committee for the Delhi services bill] came for consideration in front of the council, some members whose names figured in the list took severe exceptions. It could go as far as losing the membership of the house. That is the level of breach of privilege that the MP [Chadha] has done.”
He added: “If tomorrow if the party starts suspecting that for example Dr Sasmit Patra [a Biju Janata Dal MP who has claimed his consent was not taken before including his name in the motion] was disobeying and was going along with the other side and breaking the whip of the party, it could have many consequences. These members are extremely disturbed and hurt and looking to the chair to provide protection to their rights and give them due justice.”
Goyal further said that rather than accepting regret (for the alleged offence), Chaddha was making misleading statements.
“Unfortunately, rather than remorsefully accepting regret for his unethical conduct, outrageous disregard of the rules, Raghav Chadha in his interactions with the press ridiculed the objection. His tweets on 10 August on the same issues are highly unbecoming of a member of parliament. He went on to equate the inclusion of the names of the members to the motion to that of a birthday invitation card”, Goyal added.
Dhankar, after hearing the motion, said that “disorder cannot be allowed to be the order of the House”.
“Even one misdemeanour of a member coming to the well is painful. The member is not aware that his conduct will find disapproval by more than 1.3 billion people. Disorder cannot be allowed to be the order of the House. This has been weaponised as a political strategy, and that is anti-democratic and anti-constitutional. It will be very difficult for me sitting in this chair to overlook such kinds of transgression,” he said.
Constitutional experts had earlier told ThePrint that while including the names of other MPs in the list of members of the proposed committee without ascertaining their willingness did amount to violation, it did not necessarily mean breach of privilege.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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