Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, August 11: Raghav Chadha, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP, was suspended from the Rajya Sabha on Friday for “breach of privilege” following accusations of “fraud.”
The action was taken in response to a complaint by four MPs who said he named them in a house panel without their consent.
While announcing Chadha’s suspension, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar stated, “…I suspend Raghav Chadha from the service of the Council till the Council has the benefit of the report by the Committee of Privileges.”
His suspension came as a result of a motion made by the House Leader Piyush Goyal, who demanded that the AAP leader be punished for improperly including the names of some Upper House members in a proposed select committee for the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
However, the AAP claims that Raghav’s press conference yesterday defending himself in the alleged breach situation is what prompted the suspension.
“Nowhere has Piyush Goyal’s motion for suspension or notice served by Privilege Committee mentioned the words – forgery or fake, signatures, farziwada etc. It doesn’t even remotely allege anything to this effect. The Leader of the House has also quoted excerpts from the Press Conference on 10th August 2023 and quoted the example of using birthday invitation to explain the process of consent,” the party said.
Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, accused fraud earlier on August 8 in the Rajya Sabha after five MPs of the Upper House — S Phangnon Konyak, Narhari Amin, Sudhanshu Trivedi of the BJP, M Thambidurai of the AIADMK and Sasmit Patra of the BJD claimed that their names were included in a motion made by Chadha in the House without their permission.
“Two members (BJD MP Sasmit Patra and BJP MP Dr Sudhanshu Trivedi) are saying that they have not signed the motion (to be part of select committee) moved by AAP MP Raghav Chadha. Now it is a matter of investigation how the motion was signed,” said Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Rajya Sabha on Delhi Services Bill.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was criticised by the AAP leader during a press conference on Thursday for responding to charges of “forged signatures” made by five Rajya Sabha MPs. The AAP leader challenged the BJP to show him the piece of paper where they say the faked signatures were made.
“I challenge the BJP leaders to bring the paper on which forged signatures were done,” he said.
Jagdeep Dhankhar, the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, forwarded the MPs’ grievances to the privileges committee for review on Wednesday.
