Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday objected to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha’s protest in the House after Opposition leaders demanded a discussion over the major security breach in Parliament on Wednesday.
After the House resumed its proceedings at 2 pm following initial adjournments in the morning, the Opposition MPs raised slogans demanding a statement from the Home Minister on the security breach which saw two men jump in the Lok Sabha chamber and set off two smoke canisters.
The Chairman told the House he received 23 notices from members asking for suspension of the scheduled business of the day to discuss the “serious situation arising out of breach of security” under Rule 267 of the Rajya Sabha procedures.
After the Chairman refused to approve the notices, the members resumed a loud protest. Objecting to a hand gesture by Mr Chadha, one of the MPs who submitted a notice, Dhankhar asked him to “use his tongue.”
“Mr Chadha, you don’t have to do like this (imitating hand gesture) to raise a point. Use your tongue, don’t do that,” the Chairman said.
Rapping the AAP MP further, Mr Dhankhar also reminded him of his suspension from the House during the Monsoon session of Parliament
“… you were convicted, you were sentenced by this House,” the Chairman said.
On August 11, Mr Chadha was suspended from the Rajya Sabha after being held guilty by the Privileges Committee of presenting “misleading” facts to the media. The suspension was revoked on December 4 and the AAP leader was allowed to attend the House proceedings.
The Rajya Sabha has been adjourned till 11 am on Monday.
