National
Uproar in RS over Shourie's remarks
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, DEC. 5. An uproar today stalled proceedings in the Rajya Sabha for nearly twenty minutes after members took serious objection to a statement on Members of Parliament attributed to the Disinvestment Minister, Mr. Arun Shourie.
Mr. Jibon Roy of the CPI(M) moved a privilege motion against the Minister which the Chairman, Mr. Krishan Kant, said he would look into.
The issue came up after question hour, when the agitated CPI(M) member moved the motion against Mr. Shourie for his speech at a function of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) on Sunday which was reported in a business daily. Mr. Roy said as per the report, the Minister used the CII platform to insinuate members especially those who opposed privatisation as if they were acting on a brief provided by the corporates. He said the matter raised by him concerned the dignity and honour of the House.
Reading out the news report, Mr. Roy said the Minister was quoted as having said that corporate drafting was obvious in the case of certain letters submitted and read out in Parliament by MPs. The content of the letters showed they were drafted by corporates, as they required an understanding of accounting which was way above what an average MP had.
Mr. Roy demanded that in case the Minister denied what had been attributed to him, the privilege notice would then be for the business daily. Opposition members belonging to the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and other Left parties stood up in protest demanding action, even as the Chairman ruled that nothing else would go on record. Amid the continuing din, he also directed that television coverage of the proceedings be switched off.
Efforts by the Rural Development Minister, Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu, to intervene only led to renewed protests by the Opposition. Eventually, Mr. Krishan Kant said he had already given his ruling and that the Chair could not be bamboozled. Soon calm was restored and the House resumed its business.
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