Centre to go ahead with BJP MP Dubey's motion against Rahul, drop its own

The government today said it would go ahead with the substantive motion against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, a notice for which was submitted by BJP member Nishikant Dubey to the Lok Sabha secretariat yesterday.

The notice seeks a substantive motion against Gandhi accusing him of working with "anti-national forces" and making unsubstantiated remarks about Prime minister Narendra Modi and other individuals in the House.

Dubey's notice seeks a motion to cancel the Lok Sabha membership of Gandhi, who is Leader of Opposition.

Gandhi has said he would continue to speak for farmers and other Indians no matter what action the government brings against him.

Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju at the end of the first half of the Budget Session today said the government had decided to drop the privilege motion it was contemplating against Gandhi since Dubey, a private member, has already given a notice for another substantive motion.

Rijiju said he would discuss with Speaker Om Birla whether Dubey's notice could be sent to the committee of privileges or ethics or should it be brought directly to the House.

"These things haven't been decided yet," the minister said.

"The government had decided to move a motion. Rahul Gandhi violated rules and mentioned an unpublished book in an illegal manner; he also mentioned several things in his Budget speech – 'country sold out' and used expressions like 'nonsense' for the PM. There are several issues over which we wanted to give him a notice. Private member Nishikant Dubey has now brought a substantive motion, so for now, we are dropping the motion that the government was going to bring. Any MP can bring a motion. After the substantive motion is admitted, we will decide after discussing with the Speaker whether we can send this to Privilege Committee or Ethics Committee or bring this directly to the House to discuss," Rijiju said.