Venkaiha Naidu forwards Rahul Gandhi privilege notice to Lok Sabha

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha chairman M. Venkaiha Naidu has sent a privilege notice against Rahul Gandhi to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Bhupinder Yadav had given the privilege notice against Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Sources say that the chairman held that “prima facie there is an issue of privilege” and sent the privilege notice to the Lok Sabha Speaker as Mr Gandhi is a member of the Lok Sabha.

In his notice, Mr Yadav has claimed that Mr Gandhi was being derogatory towards Union finance minister and Leader of the House Arun Jaitley when he twisted his name.

In a tweet, Mr Gandhi had spelt Mr Jaitley as “Mr Jaitlie”. Mr Yadav further claimed that the Congress president had “deliberately twisted” the spelling of Mr Jaitley’s surname to “Jaitlie”, which was “highly derogatory” and intended to “malign the government, which constitutes an affront to the dignity of the House”.

Mr Gandhi had tweeted, “Dear Mr Jaitlie — thank you for reminding India that our PM never means what he says or says what he means. #BJPLies.” He had also attached a video of Mr Jaitley speaking and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing an election rally in Gujarat.

Hitting back, the Congress said that if this attracts privilege notice then BJP and ministers will be held guilty on many counts. Speaking to reporters, Anand Sharma, deputy Leader of Opposition in the Rajya

Sabha, said, “If it comes to privilege, ministers in the government have made many such comments which will attract privilege notices. The Prime Minister made inappropriate remarks against people who held constitutional posts… Later finance minister said the PM did not mean what he said. If political comments and tweets have to become privilege matters, then the ruling party stands exposed and shall invite many breach of privilege notices.”

A privilege motion is a notice by any member of either House against anyone who is accused of breach of privilege.

Parliamentary privileges are certain rights and immunities enjoyed by MPs, MLAs and MLCs, individually and collectively, so that they can effectively discharge their functions. When any of these rights and immunities is disregarded, the offence is called a breach of privilege and is punishable under law of Parliament or the state legislature.

A Privilege Motion can be moved against an individual, any in-house committee or even the entire house. The Speaker/chairman has the authority to admit or dismiss a privilege motion. If accepted, the Speaker can seek the services of “Committee of Privileges” to establish the allegations with facts. The committee may also recommend punishment, which the Speaker may or may not accept.

In 1961, Blitz editor R.K. Karanjia was held guilty of gross breach of privilege of the Lok Sabha. Blitz had published an article that lampooned veteran leader J.B. Kripalani. He was summoned to the bar of Lok Sabha and reprimanded, while the Lok Sabha gallery pass of his correspondent, R.K. Raghavan, was cancelled.