Row in Rajya Sabha after Dhankhar says wad of notes ‘recovered from seat allotted to Abhishek Manu Singhvi’

“Apparently, a wad of currency notes was recovered by the security officials from seat number 222, presently allotted to Singhvi… The matter was brought to my notice and I felt it expedient as per practice and ordainment to ensure that an investigation takes place in accordance with law. And the same is underway,” Dhankhar said, adding that it was his “duty” and he is “obliged” to inform the House.

“When it was brought to my notice, I thought someone would come to reclaim it. Since nothing happened since morning,” he said.

Elaborating, the Chairman said, “You can’t make out from the look… currency notes… whether they are fake or not. Apparently, the denomination is Rs 500… wad appears to be physically of 100 notes… but all these are subject to serious investigation. And I am sure no one should be opposed to an investigation because this House even otherwise has to send a signal that we are increasingly getting into the formal economy.”

Singhvi called the incident bizarre. “I heard of this fantastic, laughable story. If it was not serious about a security lapse regarding entry into Rajya Sabha… it could be laughable. Possibly we should now have barbed wire fencing around the entire seat or a glass enclosure which you can lock and go home when you leave the seat because anybody can come and put ganja or anything else in their seat when you are away,” he told reporters.

“I carry one Rs 500 note when I go to the Rajya Sabha. I reached inside the House at 12.57 pm yesterday, and the House rose at 1 pm. Then I sat in the canteen till 1.30 pm with Ayodhya Rami Reddy, then I left Parliament,” he said. “Everything in the House should not be cheap tactics and allegations and counter allegations. It demeans our level. But anyway it should be fully enquired into.”

“I find it bizarre that even on such issues politics is raised. Of course, there must be an inquiry into how people can come and put anything, anywhere in any seat. It means that each of us must have a seat where the seat itself is locked and the key can be carried home by the MP. If it was not tragic and serious, it would be comic. Everybody should cooperate in getting to the bottom of this. If there is a failure in the security agencies that must also be completely exposed,” he said.

Amid the ruckus in the House after Singhvi’s name came up, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said, “After investigation only a conclusion should be arrived at. Before an investigation, the member should not have been named.” He added later, “You said it is under investigation. But without investigating, how can you say a particular man or particular seat?”

To this, Dhankhar said he cannot determine if it is fake currency or not and an investigation will reveal the same. “I was extremely concerned, and therefore I myself ascertained whether the Honourable Member had attended the House. I found out from the electronic record that the Honourable Member had signed the record that he had come to the House,” he said, adding that he has not made any reflection beyond this finding.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said, “I don’t understand why there should be an objection that the Chair should not take the name of the member. When the Chairman has rightly pointed out the seat number and the name of the member who occupies the seat… what is the problem in that? When we are going towards digital India, is it appropriate to carry note bundles in the House? We don’t carry notes in the House. It is a genuine reason (for an investigation)… We are only saying an investigation should be done. Why are they opposing it?”

Leader of the House J P Nadda said the Opposition is concerned about the House being disrupted only when the Treasury benches raise an issue. He said the matter was serious and the Opposition and Treasury benches should not be divided as it is an attack on the dignity of the House. “This incident is uncommon and is of serious nature… I am assured that the investigation will be done in detail… Our Leader of Opposition is a senior member, and I was expecting him to say that let there be an investigation,” he said.

“Today they are concerned about the Zero Hour. Good sense should prevail on the Opposition always. This should be condemned by all in the House,” Nadda said.

Adding to this, Dhankhar said he has not cast aspersions on anyone. To this, Kharge said, “We never said that there should be no investigation. We said that only after investigation should a conclusion be arrived at. Why should Mr Nadda say that I am trying to suppress something?”

Union Minister Piyush Goyal also said it is a serious issue. “We don’t know what else may be found on that side,” he said. Without taking names, Goyal accused the Opposition of stalling Parliament over “fake narratives”.

“We have been seeing session after session, on fake narratives, fake views… the Leader of Opposition and the leaders of the immoral alliance have stalled the House,” Goyal said in an apparent reference to the Congress demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe bribery allegations against industrialist Gautam Adani.

“They base their narrative on foreign reports, and stall the House. Is there a conspiracy in this as well? People will have to worry about the kind of give and take that happens to forward the fake narrative,” he said.

The Congress hit back at the BJP. Jairam Ramesh, the party’s communication department head, said the controversy was manufactured and it is part of the BJP’s “diversionary tactic”.

“The issues that we are raising, farmers’ issues, the Rajya Sabha Chairman himself has raised it. There are many other serious issues. We want a discussion on the bribery charges against Adani… So, to divert attention from these, they raise new issues,” he told reporters.

“This search was done after 6 pm. Whose money was it? Where did it come from? Get it investigated, and it will become clear. Any kind of committee, or a JPC,” he said.

“This is a conspiracy of the government. The government had already made up its mind that they will not run Parliament today. When we are raising the Adani issue there, or when we raise some other issue, then there is Rs 50,000,” he said, referring to the recovery in Rajya Sabha.