National

Furore in Rajya Sabha over Minister's remarks

By Gargi Parsai

New Delhi Dec. 11. The Rajya Sabha was adjourned today following acrimonious scenes between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress over remarks made by the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, which suggested that there was a reference to the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, in the Ajit Jogi (audio) tape.

The discussion on the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee's statement on the former Union Minister, Dilip Singh Judev, got derailed when Mr. Prasad alleged that the Congress had suspended the former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi, as he took the name of the party chief in his attempt to split the BJP in Chhattisgarh.

Referring to the allegation of double standards against the Government made earlier by Congress members, Kapil Sibal, H.R. Bhardwaj and Nilotpal Basu (CPI-M), Mr. Prasad said that despite "three instances'' of misrepresentations and writing of a spurious letter, Mr. Jogi was not asked to step down and was used as a "poster boy'' in Chhattisgarh. He said that Mr. Jogi "would not have been dumped unless he showed the courage to use the name of Sonia Gandhi.''

This sparked angry protests from the Congress members who were on their feet demanding that Mr. Prasad authenticate his statement or withdraw it and apologise to the House. They were joined by Rashtriya Janata Dal members. The Deputy Chairperson, Najma Heptullah, said she would look at the records but this did not satisfy the Congress members.

Pranab Mukherjee, Congress leader, sought to know on what basis Mr. Prasad had made the statement and said he should either authenticate or apologise to the House or say he stood by it and take the risk of breach of privilege.

To this, Mr. Prasad said the entire tape was played on television channels and the contents had been published in newspapers. "In the nature of the conversation the name of Sonia Gandhi had come up.''

For more than 45 minutes vociferous charges were traded with the Congress members demanding adjournment of the House till the Deputy Chairperson checked the records. Mr. Nilotpal Basu wanted to know whether anyone could say anything and get away with it.

Ms. Heptullah then withdrew to her chamber to check the records and returned soon after to say that the recording of the discussion would be available after one-and-a-half hours. She said she, along with the Chairman, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, would verify the records. However, this did not satisfy the Congress and the RJD members. In the din, some BJP backbenchers made some remark which brought the Congress members and Prem Gupta and Ramdeo Bhandari of the RJD into the well of the House leading to the adjournment of the House for 30 minutes.

When the House reassembled, the situation was the same. The recording of the proceedings was not available and the Congress was in no mood to relent and sought an adjournment of the House for the day.

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