Privilege motion: Vadra invokes right to freedom of speech

Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra has sent his reply to Lok Sabha Secretariat defending his Facebook posts on criticising Parliamentarians by invoking his right to freedom of speech.

In his three-page reply sent on Wednesday, he has stressed that he respects Parliament and that there was no attempt on his part to hurt anybody, sources close to him said.

“There was no malafide intention behind my Facebook post. It was just a painful expression of a concerned citizen. I am allowed to express myself as enshrined in the constitution,” he said in his reply.

Vadra invoked a top court ruling in his defence. “A Supreme Court judgment also says that if a citizen does not have any malafide intention (against the political leaders), then there is no case of privilege which can made out,” he said.

“I had only expressed concerns about the leadership of the country and no specific member of the House and hence, no case for privilege is made out. Hence the privilege motion against me should not be entertained,” Vadra wrote in his reply.

Vadra, in his Facebook post on July 21, on the day of Monsoon session of Parliament commenced, had taken a swipe at the BJP-led NDA government, without naming it.

“Parliament begins and so do their petty diversionary political tactics... People of India are not fooled. Regret to see India led by such so-called leaders !!," Vadra had said in his post. Taking objections to his posts, two BJP Lok Sabha MPs Pralhad Joshi and Arjun M Meghwal gave separate letters requesting the Speaker to refer the matter to the Privileges Committee.The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notice to Vadra and asked him to reply in a week.