Adhir suspended from Lok Sabha over PM comment
Congress lawmaker Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has been suspended from the Lok Sabha and a privilege motion initiated against him for "gross, deliberate and repeated misconduct". This is the first time in the history of Parliament that the floor leader of the largest Opposition party has been suspended from the House. Chowdhury compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Dhritarashtra and suggested that the PM is "Nirav" (silent) on Manipur.
New Delhi
Congress lawmaker Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was suspended from the Lok Sabha on Thursday and a privilege motion initiated against him for his “gross, deliberate and repeated misconduct”, hours after he tried to compare Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Dhritarashtra and suggest that PM is “Nirav” (Bengali for silent) on Manipur.
Parliamentary historian Ravindra Garimela told HT: “This is the first time in the history of Parliament that the floor leader of the largest Opposition party has been suspended from the House.”
After the lengthy debate on the no-confidence motion ended on Thursday, parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi moved a resolution that said, “This House, having taken note of the gross, deliberate and repeated misconduct of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in utter disregard of the House and authority of the chair, resolves that the matter of misconduct be further referred to the Committee of Privileges for further investigation and Chowdhury be suspended from service of the House till the committee submits its report.”
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla also took note of the day’s developments and observed that Chowdhury’s behaviour during the debate was not appropriate.
Joshi added: “It has become habitual for him. Despite repeated warnings from the Chair he has not improved himself. Always in his debate he makes these baseless charges and tries to lower the dignity of the House. There are no facts in his arguments and he never apologises.”
Reacting to his suspension, Chowdhury told the media, “I have not insulted PM Modi. Modi ji speaks on everything but on Manipur issue, he is sitting ‘Nirav’, which means sitting silent. ‘Nirav’ means to be silent. My intention was not to insult PM Modi. PM Modi did not feel that he was insulted, his courtiers (darbari) felt so and brought this proposal against me. I came to know that (the matter) has been referred to the privilege committee and I have been suspended.”
Chowdhury’s speech, incidentally, was not originally scheduled on Thursday. During his speech in the no-confidence debate, Union home minister Amit Shah said that Chowdhury was not given time and requested the Speaker to allot the Congress lawmaker some time from the NDA’s quota.
During his speech, Chowdhury tried to compare Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Dhritarashtra and suggest that the PM is “Nirav” (silent in Bengali) on Manipur. His remarks triggered angry responses from the treasury benches with Union home minister Amit Shah emphasising that no one could speak in such a way about the Prime Minister. His comment was also seen as a reference to Nirav Modi, the fugitive diamond merchant, who fled India after defrauding a state-owned bank.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla expunged the inappropriate comments.
While replying to the no-confidence motion, Modi wondered if Chowdhury was not originally listed as a participant in the debate due to pressure from the Trinamool Congress. “Don’t know why Adhir Chowdhury has been sidelined. Perhaps a phone call came from Kolkata!”
Modi reminded the House that Union home minister Shah was kind enough to spare time from the government’s quota and the Lok Sabha Speaker graciously agreed to allow the floor leader of the biggest Opposition party to have his say.
A day after Rahul Gandhi referred to the Ramayana during his speech, Chowdhury invoked the Mahabharata to try to suggest that if a king is blind, women will suffer, whether in Hastinapur or Manipur.
Chowdhury’s attempt to describe the PM as silent led to another round of protests. The Parliamentary affairs minister cited rules to say that Chowdhury could not make allegations against the PM. “He must apologize. The home minister said that his own party didn’t give him time. He took time from us and is making baseless charges.”
Chowdhury argued that from “Chandrayaan to Cheetah”, the PM speaks on every issue but is silent on Manipur.
BJP leader Virendra Singh was also mentioned by the Speaker for misconduct but he apologized to the House. Chowdhury, who had walked out in protest, didn’t get that chance.
