Congress moves privilege notice against Amit Shah for ‘defamatory’ statements on Sonia Gandhi

A privilege motion against Union Home Minister Amit Shah was moved on Wednesday by Congress party for his ‘casting aspersions’ on its Rajya Sabha MP and former party president Sonia Gandhi.

New Delhi: Congress party on Wednesday moved a privilege motion against Union Home Minister Amit Shah for ‘casting aspersions’ on its Rajya Sabha MP and former party president Sonia Gandhi.

Jairam Ramesh, Congress communications-in-charge, in a letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, claimed that there was a ‘premeditated move’ to malign Sonia Gandhi, in connection with the functioning of National Prime Minister’s Relief Fund (PMNRF).

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He accused Amit Shah of making blatantly false and defamatory statements against party MP Sonia Gandhi and demanded that privilege proceedings be initiated against the Home Minister.

Jairam’s demand for privilege motion followed Amit Shah’s statement during debate on Disaster Management Bill 2024 in the House on March 25.

“A family controlled the fund when Congress was in power. The Congress president was a member of this committee. Congress president was part of a government fund. What answer will we give to people? They think nobody reads, nobody notices it,” Jairam quoted Shah as saying in his letter.

Jairam, also the Congress chief whip claimed that though Home Minister didn’t take the name of Sonia Gandhi, it was imperative that he referred to her and “imputed motives” to her on the functioning of NPMRF.

“It is well established that it is a breach of privilege and contempt of the House to cast reflections or make derogatory references to any MP. In the instant case, the Home Minister has made unfounded allegations against Sonia Gandhi with a premeditated motive to malign her reputation,” he said.

“The Home Minister’s statement is blatantly false and is defamatory. This tantamounts to breach of privilege of Sonia Gandhi,” he further stated.

Jairam’s move for privilege motion against Amit Shah comes close on the heels of similar notices against Leader of the House (Rajya Sabha) JP Nadda and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju over their ‘misleading’ remarks on Karnataka Deputy CM.

Both ministers had stated that Karnataka Dy CM DK Shivakumar spoke about changing the Constitution to facilitate 4% reservation for Muslims.