Raghav Chadha suspended from Rajya Sabha for ‘violation of rules’

AAP MP Raghav Chadha who was accused of not taking the consent of five Rajya Sabha MPs before including their name to a select committee has been suspended from the Upper House of Parliament on Friday -- until the committee of privileges investigating the case against him submits its report. The motion of suspension was moved by Piyush Goyal who said Raghav Chadha's action was unethical. Chadha's conduct was unexpected and unbecoming of a member of Parliament, Goyal said accusing Chadha of breach of privilege.

Five Rajya Sabha MPs — S Phangnon Konyak, Narhari Amin and Sudhanshu Trivedi of BJP, M Thambidurai of AIADMK and Sasmit Patra of BJD — said that their name was included without their consent in a select committee moved by Raghav Chadha in the House.

Raghav Chadha refuted the allegations and said an MP can propose the name for the formation of any committee and neither the signature nor the written consent of the person whose name is proposed is required. "Suppose I organise a birthday party and invite 10 people. Eight of them come, and two don't accept my invite. Instead, they charge me, 'how dare you invite us to your birthday?' This is what happened. I just invited them (MPs) to be part of the committee," Raghav Chadha said.

Instead of expressing remorse for his unethical conduct, Raghav Chadha in his interaction with the press outside the House ridiculed the objections raised by his fellow parliamentarians for including their names, Goyal said as he moved the motion against Chadha in the Upper House. Referring to Raghav Chadha's subsequent tweet on the issue, Goyal said it was unbecoming of a parliamentarian. Raghav Chadha went on to equate the inclusion of the names of members to a select committee with that of a birthday party, Goyal said.

"Raghav Chadha also said his colleague Sanjay Singh was suspended because of asking questions knowing fully well that Sanjay Singh was suspended because of unruly behaviour," Goyal said.

What is the row over Raghav Chadha?

On Monday, Union home minister Amit Shah alleged that Raghav Chadha forged the signatures of five MPs in the motion to send the Delhi Services Bill to a select committee. AAP countered the allegation and said there was no signature and so there was no forgery involved as no signature is required -- only the names of the MPs are to be given. And the names of those five MPs were given in 'good faith'.