Jairam Ramesh moves privilege motion against Amit Shah in Rajya Sabha for ‘casting aspersions’ on Sonia Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress Rajya Sabha Chief Whip Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday submitted a privilege notice against Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing him of making remarks with a “premeditated motive to malign” party MP Sonia Gandhi in connection with the functioning of National Prime Minister’s Relief Fund (NPMRF).

Ramesh said Shah’s remarks against the top Congress leader were “blatantly false and is defamatory” and it amounted to breach of privilege and urged Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to initiate proceedings under Rule 188 of the Rules and Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States.

Jairam has referred to Shah’s remarks during his reply to the debate on the Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2024 during which the Home Minister said the NPMRF was set up during Congress rule and PM-CARES under the Narendra Modi government.

“A family controlled the fund when Congress was in power. The Congress president was a member of this committee. Congress president was part of a government fund. What answer will we give to people? They think nobody reads, nobody notices it,” Shah said in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

Accusing Shah of casting aspersions on her, Ramesh said the Home Minister did not take Sonia’s name but he had categorically by implication referred to the former Congress president and “imputed motives” to her on the functioning of NPMRF.

“It is well established that it is a breach of privilege and contempt of the House to cast reflections or make derogatory references to any MP. In the instant case, the Home Minister has made unfounded allegations against Sonia Gandhi with a premeditated motive to malign her reputation,” he said.

“The Home Minister’s statement is blatantly false and is defamatory. This tantamounts to breach of privilege of Sonia Gandhi,” he said.

On Monday, Ramesh had submitted privilege notices against Leader of the House (Rajya Sabha) J P Nadda and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, charging them with “misleading” the House by alleging that Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar made statement on providing reservation to Muslims by changing the Constitution.