BJP moved a privilege notice in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday against Congress president and lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi for his reported distorting of the name of leader of House Arun Jaitley. Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said he would examine the motion. He also said comments on the agreement reached between the ruling and Opposition to break the impasse to let the Upper House was not good.
Raising the issue during zero hour, BJP MP Bhupender Yadav said the Congress president twisted the name of Jaitley in a tweet after the Government and Opposition leaders broke the logjam hampering the proceedings for the last one week. The Congress president had earlier tweeted: “Dear Mr Jaitlie - thank you for reminding India that our PM never means what he says or says what he means.”
It pertained to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks against his predecessor Manmohan Singh during an election rally in Gujarat a few weeks back. Rahul even posted along with his tweet a video of Modi's related election speech.
Yadav said he was moving the privilege motion against Rahul under rule 187 alleging the Congress President had “intentionally, maliciously and disrespectfully twisted” name of Jaitley in a tweet. “I want to say that the way he has tweeted the name of the leader of the House falls under the category of privilege,” the BJP member said and sought a ruling from the Chair on the notice.
Even as Congress protested, Naidu said no MP can take the name of a person not present or able to defend in the Rajya Sabha. It was in obvious reference to Rahul being a MP of the lok Sabha.
later, Naidu said he would examine the privilege notice and added that any comment from outside the House on an agreement between the ruling side and the opposition was not good. “A solemn agreement between the leader of the House and leader of the Opposition was reached. Anybody outside (the House) commenting on the agreement is not good for the House or the system,” Naidu said.