Rajya Sabha Chairman Dhankhar rejects privilege notice against Amit Shah

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh had moved the notice against Shah for 'casting aspersions' on Congress Parliamentary Party head Sonia Gandhi.

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday rejected a breach of privilege notice against Union Home Minister Amit Shah, saying there is "no transgression" after the latter cited a 1948 government press release to authenticate his statement that the Congress president was part of the management of the National Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.

Announcing his ruling on Congress Rajya Sabha Chief Whip Jairam Ramesh's notice, Dhankhar said Shah's statement earlier this week was in "absolute adherence to truth" and the notice was "invoked in haste" to get traction in the media.

Ramesh had moved the notice against Shah for "casting aspersions" on Congress Parliamentary Party head Sonia Gandhi while replying to a debate on the Disaster Management Bill, 2024 in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

During the debate, Shah had promised to authenticate his claim when some Opposition MPs objected to his remarks. Shah provided a 1948 official press release to authenticate his claim.

Quoting from the press release cited by Shah, he said that the PMNRF will be managed by a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the President of the Indian National Congress, the Deputy Prime Minister and there are some other Members.

Dhankhar said, "I have carefully gone through it. I find there has been no transgression. There has been absolute adherence to truth which is vindicated by a document that is available to the MPs and that being the situation, I can't persuade myself to accord any acceptance to this Notice of Question of Privilege against Amit Shah, Minister of Home Affairs."

Emphasising that breach of privilege is a "serious matter", he said he has "declined with a deep sense of anguish and pain" that MPs rush to invoke breach of privilege.

"We rush to the media, give it traction, try to tarnish the image. And I have said on a number of occasions, this House will not be a platform to ruin reputations of people," he said and referred to the formation of the Ethics Committee in 1998.

He spoke about a report by the committee under SB Chauhan that MPs must conduct themselves in a manner that upholds the dignity of Parliament and preserves their personal credibility.

"I'm tasking the Ethics Committee to look into SB Chauhan Committee report on ethics and take note of the intervening situations mostly brought about by technological developments and social media and evolve our mechanism, fresh guidelines for members for adherence," he said.