Nishikant Dubey moves privilege motion against Rahul Gandhi
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey on Friday moved a privilege motion against Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi demanding his immediate suspension for his “dastardly conduct” of sharing a “criminally edited” clip of Union home minister Amit Shah on X (formerly Twitter).
Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said a similar motion was moved against Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
The development comes a day after Kharge moved a privilege motion against Shah alleging contempt of the House.
“While conspiring to undertake such a shameful act, Shri Rahul Gandhi has forgot that this time he has surpassed all the limits of sensible behaviour expected from the Leader of Opposition of Lok Sabha and thus committed the offence of ‘Breach of Parliamentary Privileges’ and ‘Contempt of the House’ which calls for exemplary punishment which could not be less than his immediate suspension from the House and its Committees followed by thorough investigation by the Committee of Privileges,” Dubey said in his notice.
He accused Gandhi of sharing Shah’s video “with the sole intent of fomenting the public sentiments as well as lowering the dignity of Parliament and also the country.”
Alleging Gandhi of “cleverly and out-of-context” quoting of parliamentary proceedings, Dubey urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to probe the matter and suspend Gandhi from the Parliament till the investigation report is presented in the House.
Reacting to the developments, Congress member and Lok Sabha MP Hibi Eden asked for the update on the privilege motions against Dubey and Sambit Patra earlier.
“We had moved privilege motions against Nishikant Dubey and Sambit Patra earlier, I’d like to ask what is the update of that? There were journalists and other members of Parliament on the premises, and I am a witness to the whole incident. Let the CCTV footage of the incident come and the whole thing will be proven, we are waiting for that. The allegations by BJP are incorrect, that is not the attitude of Rahul Gandhi and the Congress.”
Eden also shed light on the issue of entering through Makar Dwar.
“LoP is a constitutional position and he has the right to enter in the House for attending the session.”