Sonia Gandhi calls meeting of Congress MPs over Adhir Ranjan’s suspension from Lok Sabha
Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi has called a meeting today of the party’s Lok Sabha members to discuss the suspension of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from the lower house for “repeated misconduct”. The meeting has been called at the CPP office at the Parliament at 10.30am.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Thursday moved a resolution for Chowdhury’s suspension after certain remarks by the Congress leader on the prime minister during the no-confidence motion debate triggered an outrage from the treasury benches. The resolution was passed by a voice vote.
Chowdhury later defended his remarks saying he had not insulted PM Modi.
“Modi ji is sitting ‘nirav’ on Manipur issue, which means sitting silent. ‘Nirav’ means to be silent. My intention was not to insult PM Modi,” the Congress leader in Lok Sabha said.
“PM Modi did not feel that he was insulted, his darbaris (courtiers) felt so and brought this proposal against me. I came to know that (the matter) has been referred to the privileges committee and I have been suspended till then,” he said.
Congress MP Manish Tewari called the suspension “unfortunate” and an “utter violation of Article 105 (1) of the Constitution of India”.
“It has profound implications for democracy & freedom speech in Parliament & the legislatures,” he wrote on X.
“It is in utter violation of Article 105 (1) of the Constitution of India that states Subject to the provisions of this constitution and the rules and standing orders regulating the procedure of Parliament, there shall be freedom of speech in Parliament.”
Tewari added, “This is a fit case for to challenge the suspension in an appropriate Court of Law.”
Congress whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore said, “First time for speaking against Modi, largest opposition (party) leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury suspended. Unbelievable. Undemocratic. Condemn the autocracy.”
Speaking in the House, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Joshi said, “It has become habitual for him (Adhir) and it has become most unfortunate. He is the leader of the Congress party, which is the largest party in the opposition in this House. Despite repeated warnings he has not improved himself.”
“Always in his debate he makes these baseless charges, he tries to lower the dignity of the government. There are no facts in his arguments and he never apologises. Today also, we demanded that he apologise. He did the same thing when the home minister was speaking,” Joshi said.