The Hindu : Privilege move against PM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 25, 2002

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Privilege move against PM

By Javed M. Ansari

NEW DELHI APRIL 24. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, was in the centre of a controversy in the Lok Sabha today as irate Opposition members served a notice of breach of privilege motion against him for alleged remarks on the Deputy Speaker, P.M. Sayeed's ruling on the Gujarat issue.

The Prime Minister's Office last night denied that Mr. Vajpayee made any such remarks — that the ruling was "unfortunate" — and that he only referred to the wording of the Opposition motion on Gujarat.

Trouble began soon after the House assembled with Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (RJD) demanding a ruling from Mr. Sayeed on the notice of a privilege motion moved by him. Mr. Prasad alleged that the Prime Minister had cast aspersions on Parliament and the Chair by questioning his (Deputy Speaker's) ruling. He referred to Mr. Vajpayee's speech at the birthday celebrations of Chandra Shekhar. "By saying that the Gujarat incidents could have been avoided if Parliament had condemned the Godhra incident, Mr. Vajpayee has insulted the institution of Parliament.''

Mr. Sayeed said he had received their notice, and that he would proceed according to the rules and conventions of the House. "I have seen the report and the denial in the papers. We have to proceed according to rules. The established convention is that after the information is verified, the House will decide what is to be done. Please leave it to me.''

The Congress persisted with the issue outside the House as well with its spokesman, Jaipal Reddy, deploring Mr. Vajpayee's alleged remarks. He did not appear convinced by the PMO clarification. "He has made it a habit to issue clarifications, both his original remarks and the clarifications that follow are made deliberately,'' Mr. Reddy alleged. In a lighter vein, he asked for a limit to be placed on the "number of clarifications that the Prime Minister could give to his statements".

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