Lok Sabha notice to Thackeray on MPs’ complaint

Remarks on Bihar MPs in Saamna trigger breach of privilege move

NEW DELHI: Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray’s outburst against people from Bihar could land him in trouble with Parliament.

The Lok Sabha secretariat has sent him a notice on the breach of privilege complaints filed by Prabhunath Singh, Devendra Prasad Yadav and several other MPs.

The Shiv Sena supremo has been asked to send his reply to the Lok Sabha Speaker within a specified time. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee will then decide whether the case should be referred to the privileges committee of the house.

The 15-member multi-party privileges committee headed by Kishore Chandra Deo can reprimand and even send to jail the person against whom the complaint has been filed.  

Right now the issue is at a preliminary stage and Lok Sabha officials point out that the notice sent to Thackeray is routine procedure followed in every such case. “So far the case has not come to me,” says Deo.

The most recent case to come before the committee was that of Ronen Sen, India’s ambassador to the United States. He was hauled up following complaints from MPs who felt his remark about people running about like headless chicken, made in the context of the opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal, was aimed at them. The committee let off Sen after he apologised.