Madhya Pradesh Assembly Speaker Sitasharan Sharma on Tuesday announced in the House that two breach of privilege notices submitted against leader of the Opposition Satyadev Katare would be forwarded to the Privileges Committee.
Proceedings were adjourned for ten minutes due to pandemonium, after Question Hour, created by the principal Opposition Congress over secret documents being published in a book on the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board scam.
"I have submitted a breach of privilege notice. Katare made an untrue statement in the House and misled it regarding Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's close relatives' selection by the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission," Forest Minister Gaurishankar Shejwar told the Speaker after proceedings recommenced.Katare quoted rules provided in an advertisement published in 2011 while the person concerned was chosen in 2008, he said.
During the subsequent discussion, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra accused Katare of false rhetoric in the Assembly for garnering publicity in newspapers.At that juncture, the Treasury and Opposition benches exchanged heavy verbal fire.Rising to his own defence, Katare said, "On the day the issue was raised, I sought to table documents but the Speaker did not permit me to do so. Irregularities were committed in the selection of the Chief Minister's kin as rules given in advertisements published in 2008 and 2009 were violated."
When he seeks to raise the issue, he is threatened with defamation and breach of privilege, the Congress leader alleged. An argument between Katare and Mishra resulted in Congress members trooping into the well. Tempers were assuaged when Mishra withdrew a remark. Katare reiterated that the matter should be inquired into by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
"The notice will be forwarded to the Privileges Committee along with another such notice submitted by Dr Mishra and other ruling BJP members against Mr Katare and Congress Member Bala Bachchan who brought a 'kamandal' (stoup), saffron clothing and a bell into the House last week," the Speaker ruled.