During the debate on Monday on the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, popularly known as Delhi services bill, in the Rajya Sabha, Chadha had proposed the setting up of a select committee to examine it. However, at least three members got up and said their names had been included in the list without their consent.
Home minister Amit Shah, who was piloting the bill, took exception to the development and alleged that a matter of forgery had taken place. He requested deputy chairperson Harivansh to get the matter investigated which was accepted by the chair.
Defending Chadha and slamming the BJP, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said in a tweet, “The Home Minister was furious in the House and said ‘send the name of @raghav_chadha to the Committee of Privileges’. Don’t you know that no one’s signature is required to propose the name in the Select Committee? Do not spread lies and rumours, Home Minister.”
AAP national spokesperson and Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that the BJP is “cooking up a false case” against Chadha. “Those (MPs) who said that Raghav Chadha forged their signatures, they lied because there was no signature. Breach of privilege motion action can be taken against them. Just like they (Centre) disqualified Rahul Gandhi by creating a false case, BJP wants to do the same with Raghav too. These people are very powerful and can do anything. But we are not afraid of them,” Bharadwaj claimed.
Senior AAP leader Atishi also claimed that the BJP accusing Chadha of forgery is “an attempt to take away his Parliament membership”.
“It is BJP’s attempt to take away the Parliament membership of Raghav Chadha through the backdoor, just like Rahul Gandhi’s membership was revoked,” she alleged.
Party spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said, “Raghav Chadha proposed the names of 19 MPs (for the select committee), of which five members refused. They made it a big issue out of it because they got scared of his speech.”
After the deputy chairman read out the names to be included in the proposed select committee, home minister Shah informed that five members have complained that their names were included without their signatures in the proposal moved by the AAP leader.
He demanded that this issue be investigated. Terming it a breach of privilege of the House, Shah said the matter should be referred to the privileges committee.
Then three members, including Sasmit Patra of the BJD, M Thambidurai of the AIADMK and S Phangnon Konyak of the BJP stood up and informed the House that their consent was not taken for the inclusion of their names in the proposed select committee.
Subsequently, Harivansh announced a probe into the complaints of at least four MPs that their names were included in a proposed select committee of the House for the Delhi services bill without their consent.
He said the complaints of the MPs will be probed. He, however, did not indicate the agency for the probe and the timeframe for completing it.
Parliament on Monday passed the bill that gives the central government control over bureaucrats in the Delhi government.
(With agency inputs)