India’s Ambassador to the US Ronen Sen on Monday appeared before the Lok Sabha Privileges Committee and tendered an apology for his “headless chicken” comments.

Mr Sen, who was directed by LS Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to appear before the committee, is understood to have reiterated that he never gave any interview to any journalist. However, an off-the-record conversation was blown out proportion and published. The remark of headless chicken was not against anybody and certainly not against the MPs. Soon after the remarks were published on August 21, the two houses of parliament was in an uproar calling for Mr Sen’s head. Both houses were stalled for over two days.

 despite a statement read out by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee in which Mr Sen had apologised for his remarks.

Apology
At the in-camera meeting in the Parliament on Monday, the ambassador read out his statement profusely apologising for the incident and asserted that he had highest respect for the Indian Parliament and its MPs.

The 30-minute meeting, it is understood, did not grill Mr Sen at length and seemed to accept his statement. It is likely that no further action would be suggested by the committee.

This is perhaps for the first time in parliamentary history that a top diplomat appeared before the law makers for making controversial remarks that created a furore in both the houses of parliament during the monsoon session.
Another meeting
The LS privileges committee is likely to hold another meeting before submitting its findings to the Speaker. The Rajya Sabha privileges committee will meet on November 2 in which Mr Sen will appear to explain his utterances.

In the interview which took Parliament by storm, Mr Sen was reported to have said: “It has been approved here (in Washington) by the President, and there (in New Delhi). It’s been approved by the Indian cabinet. So why do you have all this running around like headless chicken, looking for a comment here or comment there, and these little storms in a tea-cup?”

Following the uproar, Mr Sen had clarified: “My comment about “running round like headless chicken looking for a comment here or comment there” was a tactless observation on some of my media friends, and most certainly not with reference to any MPs.”