New Delhi, Aug 10: Congress leader Manickam Tagore on Thursday moved a privilege motion against Union Home Minister Amit Shah for misleading Parliament in the case of Maharashtra woman Kalavati Bandurkar.
Shah had referred to Rahul Gandhi’s much-hyped 2008 visit to the house of a widow — Kalavati — in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region during the ongoing discussion on no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
In his privilege motion letter submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Tagore said, “I write to bring to your attention towards breach of Parliamentary Privilege by Union Minister of Home Affairs Shah and to move a notice.”
He also mentioned that as per the rules in Lok Sabha, it is the duty of the Minister to uphold the sanctity of accurate and truthful information when addressing the House.
“The issue in question pertains to a statement made by the Minister of Home Affairs in the Lok Sabha yesterday, i.e., August 8, wherein he provided details of facilities purportedly extended by the Government at the house of a Kalavati, a farmer’s widow from Maharashtra,” the Congress leader said.
Tagore said, however, “to the utter dismay of the concerned us this statement has been vehemently refuted by the concerned Kalavati herself to media channels, who has explicitly stated that the Modi government has not provided any such facilities for the past eight years instead Rahul Gandhi helped her in building her house.
“This discrepancy between the statement made by the Union Minister and the reality as communicated by the affected Kalavati raises serious doubts about the veracity of the information presented in the Lok Sabha and it highlights a potential breach of privilege under Rule 22, Chapter 20 of the Lok Sabha Rules,” he said.
“In light of the aforementioned circumstances, I hope you would take cognizance of this matter and consider initiating appropriate action. The breach of privilege motion, as outlined in Rule 22, Chapter 20 of the Lok Sabha Rules, should be initiated to ensure the accountability and integrity of our parliamentary system. Therefore, I request you to exercise your esteemed authority to move a breach of privilege motion against the Union Minister for his statement which appears to be in direct contradiction to the ground reality and direct him to seek apology from the House of People for his wrong and irresponsible statement yesterday,” Tagore, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar said.
His remarks came a day after Shah took a jibe at Rahul Gandhi and reminded the Parliament House about the Congress leader’s visit to the home of Kalavati in 2008.
Slamming the Congress leader, the Union Minister said, “There is a leader in this House whose political career has been launched 13 times till now. And all 13 attempts have failed.”
Referring to his visit to Vidarbha, he said, “I have seen one of the launches in this House. This leader visited the home of a less-fortunate woman, Kalavati, and had a meal at her home. He then spoke about poverty and her hardships in the House. Their government was in power for six years after this. I want to ask, what did you do for her? The Modi government gave her a house, electricity, gas, ration, and toilet,” Shah said.
Shah made the remarks during the discussion on the no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha.
The no-trust motion has been brought by the Congress on behalf of the opposition bloc of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). The debate was initiated on Tuesday by Congress Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi.
It will conclude with the Prime Minister’s reply on Thursday.
