Govt-Oppn showdown continues in RS, Piyush Goyal targets Rahul Gandhi again

Several members, including Congress’s Pramod Tiwari, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Syed Nasir Hussain, K C Venugopal, Kumar Ketkar, Jebi Mather Hisham, Amee Yajnik and Neeraj Dangi; BRS’s K Keshava Rao and AAP’s Sanjay Singh, had given notices seeking a discussion on the Adani affair and the government’s “failure” to set up a JPC. Amid shouting by both treasury and opposition benches, the House was adjourned till 2pm.

Similar scenes were witnessed when the House reassembled at 2pm. As the Opposition members demanded a discussion on the Adani affair, Goyal raised the Rahul Gandhi matter.

He said the leader who “insulted” the Indian Parliament, “denigrated the country and its image” on foreign soil will have to tender an apology to the country and the presiding officers. He said the leader had even raised questions on India’s democracy.

“I request you to give a direction from the Chair that he come to the House and apologise,” he said. As the BJP members raised slogans demanding an apology from Rahul, Congress MP Shaktisinh Gohil, who gave a notice for raising a beach of privilege against Goyal, quoted rules to argue that “no allegation of a defamatory or incriminatory nature shall be made by a member against any other member or a member of the House”.

Gohil said Goyal was referring to a member of the Lok Sabha and argued that “no reference can be made about a member of the Lok Sabha in the House (Rajya Sabha) even if the reference was of a general nature and the name of the member was not mentioned”. Responding to Gohil, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said he was seized of the matter.

Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge had on Monday demanded that the remarks of Goyal be expunged from record. Dhankhar said he has already discussed the issue with Leader of the Opposition Kharge and senior members of the Congress as also the treasury benches. “I have indicated to the members who have interacted with me that this is a very critical issue. We are required to give a final view to this because this will define what we can debate and what we cannot debate.”

Dhankhar said he will give a ruling at the earliest. “I on my own cannot have a point of view. I will have a point of view where I will coalesce all other points of view and then take a call,” he said.

In his notice, Gohil said, “Goyal repeatedly spoke about a member of Lok Sabha and kept on stating facts which were not true. Goyal criticised a member of Lok Sabha without truth and was intentionally going on with derogatory remarks.” Gohil also cited some previous instances in his notice. “In a landmark case, Mr N C Chatterjee, member of the Lok Sabha made a speech outside Parliament and when his speech issue was raised in Rajya Sabha on May 11, 1954, it was not allowed,” he said.

On June 19, 1967, he said the then chairman of Rajya Sabha V V Giri had stated, “I would like to add that it would be a good rule to observe that members of one House should not use the freedom of speech on the floor of the House to make allegations or charges against members of the other House”.

Thirdly, he said, in March 1983, “when a member sought to make allegations in Rajya Sabha against a member of Lok Sabha, L K Advani, who was then a member of Rajya Sabha, protested against it and requested the Chair not to allow the allegations to go on record.” Gohil said the then vice-chairman had observed that “prima facie, Mr Advani is right. Before referring to a member of the other House one has to exercise a lot of care and caution”.

While Goyal did not name Rahul, his cabinet colleague Bhupender Yadav took his name. He said Article 79 speaks about Parliament, which means both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Yadav also referred to Chatterjee’s case. “Chatterjee had in Chennai spoken about the inaction of the House. It was taken cognisance in the Rajya Sabha. Taking cognisance, it was said that maybe he is a member of the other House…but he had spoken against proceedings of the House…”

“What Rahul Gandhi said…he said that in London about Parliament…Parliament includes two houses…so if someone has deliberately said something…insulting Parliamentary proceedings… and talk about intervention of some foreign power in Parliamentary proceedings then certainly…it amounts to insulting (Parliament) and he should apologise to the country,” Yadav said. With both opposition and treasury benches indulging in slogan shouting, the Chairman adjourned the House for the day.