Parliament session: Sonia Gandhi to chair Congress strategy meet

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will chair a strategy meeting with the senior leaders of the party on Wednesday ahead of another turbulent Parliament session as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gave a breach-of-privilege notice in the Lok Sabha against the Congress's chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia for having made 'defamatory' remarks against Union Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru Dattatreya.

Earlier, the Congress had also moved a breach-of-privilege motion against Union Human Resource and Development Minister Smriti Irani alleging that she had misled the House with her statement over Hyderabad scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide.

Dattatreya yesterday accused Congress's Jyotiraditya Scindia for 'tarnishing his image' and said that he never mentioned Hyderabad PhD scholar Rohith Vemula's name in the letter sent to the HRD ministry. "I never mentioned Rohith's name (in the letter to the HRD Ministry). I never mentioned any student's name or any organisation of the university as casteist or anti-social or anti-national element. Jyotiraditya has tarnished my image," Dattatreya told the reporters here.

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on February 24 accused the BJP-led government of creating an atmosphere of intolerance in the country and alleged that efforts were on to crush any opposing point of view. Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Scindia demanded action against Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani and Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya over Rohith's suicide.