Privilege motions galore in LS

 It was a war of privilege motions in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. In a tit-for-tat approach, BJP members hit back at the Congress for giving notice for moving a breach of privilege motion against HRD Minister Smriti Irani.

BJP chief whip Arjun Ram Meghwal and few other party colleagues had given notices for moving a breach of privilege motion against Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia for misleading the Lok Sabha over purported remarks made by Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya.

Scindia, while initiating the debate on the JNU row and the suicide at the Hyderabad Central University (HCU), had claimed Dattatreya had called Rohith Vemula “anti-national, casteist and extremist”.

Dattatreya also gave a notice for breach of privilege motion against Scindia accusing the Congress leader of “defaming him and tarnishing” his image by attributing such comments to him that he never made about Vemula.

The minister said his letter to Irani, over which he has been attacked by the Congress, made no mention of Vemula’s name. “I never made such charge against him,” Dattatreya said.

Congress members K C Venugopal and Ranjeet Ranjan had given notices for breach of privilege motions against Irani on Monday. CPM member Mohd Salim too gave a similar notice on Tuesday. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had reserved her observations on the notices given by opposition members.

In his notice against Smirti, Salim claimed that the statement made by the minister, while replying to a short duration discussion on April 24 on the recent incidents at JNU and HCU, had “glaring inconsistencies”.

Parliamentary privilege refers to rights and immunities enjoyed by Parliament as an institution and MPs in their individual capacity, without which they cannot discharge their functions as entrusted upon them by the Constitution.

The House can let off the offending person committing a breach of privilege with a warning or even send the person to prison as the case may be.

Scindia, while initiating the debate on the JNU row and the suicide at the HCU, had claimed Dattatreya had called Rohith Vemula “anti-national”.