By IANS,
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said it will Tuesday serve notice in parliament of a breach of privilege motion against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for “misleading” the house over his remarks that the panel which probed the bribe-for-votes scam in 2008 had found insufficient evidence to draw any conclusions.
“BJP will give notice of privilege motion against the prime minister tomorrow in the two houses for misleading the house on the July 2008 trust vote,” BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.
Hussain said the prime minister had told the parliament last week that no bribe was paid while the Kishore Chandra Deo committee, that looked into the issue, had stated that bribe was paid.
He said Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj would give notice for breach of privilege in the lower house while in the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley will give the notice in the upper house.
Hussain also decried reports about Congress planning to give breach of privilege notice against Sushma Swaraj for defying Speaker Meira Kumar’s ruling Friday.
The Speaker had asked Sushma Swaraj to move a calling attention motion on problems faced by Indian fishermen due to firing by Sri Lankan Navy Friday. However, she insisted on a statement from the prime minister on the WikiLeaks expose relating to the 2008 trust vote and was supported by her party members.
Hussain said the Congress plan to give privilege notice against Sushma Swaraj showed that “it was feeling scared”.
“A MP needs chance to speak. Leader of Opposition has the right to speak. If such issues are raised, how will MPs speak,” Hussain said.
The spokesperson said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance will also demand a discussion in the Lok Sabha under Rule 193 on the WikiLeaks expose relating to the trust vote.
He said party leader Yashwant Sinha and Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav will demand discussion under Rule 193, which does not entail voting.
The party had declared last week that it will move privilege motion against the prime minister over his statement relating to the WikiLeaks expose.