The Lok Sabha admonished its former secretary general Subash C Kashyap for "gross breach of privilege" and "contempt of the House" for "reckless" remarks against Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.
NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented move, the Lok Sabha on Tuesday admonished its former secretary general Subash C Kashyap for "gross breach of privilege" and "contempt of the
House" for "reckless" remarks against Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who was targeted by the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party for the way he brought up the issue.
Amidst protests by BJP members who stormed the well, the motion to admonish Kashyap was moved by Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee minutes before the over three-month budget session of the Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die.
The motion was passed by a voice vote even as BJP members continued chanting "Lok tantra me tanashahi nahi chalegi, dadagiri nahi chalegi, Nadhirshahi nahi chalegi (in a democracy dictatorship, bullying and behaving like Nadir Shah will not help)."
The Privileges Committee, in its report tabled on May 19, had recommended admonition of Kashyap for committing "a gross breach of privilege and contempt of the House by imputing motives to the Speaker in discharge of his duties and casting reflections on his impartiality."
Shouting "shame, shame", the BJP members objected to the "manner in which the House is being run".
Apparently anguished over the developments, the Speaker asked Finance Minister P Chidambaram to reply to a special discussion on rising prices in the midst of din after the
House reassembled for the third time following adjournments on the Kashyap issue.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Leader of the Opposition L K Advani were present in the House when the motion was adopted while Congress President Sonia Gandhi came minutes before it was adjourned sine die after playing of the national anthem Vande Mataram.
Kashyap was not present at the bar of the House when the motion was adopted.
Earlier, the BJP members refused to pay heed to the remarks of Parliamentary Affairs Minister PR Dasmunsi that the government was ready to discuss any issue.
It was trouble from the word go with BJP Deputy leader VK Malhotra taking exception to the listed motion, saying the Committee's report had not come up at the Business Advisory Committee meeting.
The treasury benches and other allies of the United Progressive Alliance shouted counter slogans. As the din continued, the Speaker first
adjourned the House till noon and then again till 2 pm.
The House was adjourned sine die when it reassembled after the second adjournment.
In an unprecedented step against the former secretary general, the committee recommended Kashyap's admonition for his "reckless and irresponsible" behaviour of casting serious aspersions on the Speaker.
Raising the issue, Malhotra said the report had not been discussed at all and suddenly "we see in the agenda it has been listed as a motion to be moved".
The motion said the House "... agrees with the findings and conclusions of the committee and resolves that Dr Subhash C Kashyap, former secretary general, Lok Sabha, has committed a gross breach of privilege and contempt of the House by imputing motives to the Speaker in discharge of his duties and casting reflections on his impartiality and admonishes him for his grave misconduct."
The Privileges Committee headed by V Kishore Chandra S Deo made the recommendations on a notice of question of privilege given by Hannan Mollah (CPI-M) against Kashyap following his interview to a news channel in the wake of an incident involving Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee on August 4.
Banerjee had come to the well of the House and thrown some papers towards the deputy speaker after he informed her that her notice of adjournment motion has been disallowed by the Speaker.
The committee felt the gravity of the offence has increased since the derogatory references were made by a "person well versed in parliamentary procedures and practices and who once served as secretary general of Lok
Sabha".
Noting that Kashyap needed to be handed out "appropriate deterrent punishment", it felt that had Kashyap showed a little more circumspection while giving the interview, this situation would not have arisen.
In the interview, Kashyap had sought to project that such incidents had not happened for the first time. He had recalled that Banerjee had challenged the Communist government in West Bengal for many years.
Besides, he said it had a "personal" aspect also as she had defeated Chatterjee when she won the first Lok Sabha polls.
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