Privilege notice in LS over Rahul's Union of States comment

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New Delhi, February 3

A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi described India as a Union of States in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey gave a notice for breach of privilege against Wayanad MP saying he attempted to “incite MPs and the nation” with his remarks during the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address.

Dubey submitted notices for breach of privilege and contempt of the house to Lok Sabha Secretary General and also urged Speaker Om Birla to expunge the remarks from the house proceedings.

“In his speech, Shri Rahul Gandhi has uttered that India is described as a Union of States and India is not described as a Nation. He has further correlated this by making a hollow, baseless and childish prophecy that the people of Tamil Nadu and other states would never allow themselves to be ruled by the present Government/Party. These utterances of Shri Rahul Gandhi are an attempt to incite other Members of Parliament and citizens of the Nation, by means of a live telecast, that any State could easily be separated from our ‘Nation’ if they do not want to be ruled by a specific political party and no new state and/or alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing States could be effected in any manner in view of the fact that our Country came to existence by means of a negotiation between and amongst various States,” the notice said adding that while all MPs have the constitutional right to express their views, their foremost duty is to maintain decency and not utter anything to lower the dignity of Parliament.

Dubey called Gandhi a “script reader” and a “drawing room politician” adding that Gandhi does not appear to have read the Preamble of the Constitution, which unambiguously states, “We, the People of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic. By usage of the word Republic in the Preamble of our Constitution, it has already been made clear to one and all that India is a Nation but it is quite unfortunate that this simple fact is not understood by a veteran Parliamentarian Shri Rahul Gandhi.”

Gandhi had said in LS yesterday that the idea of a king was back. “If you read the Constitution, you will find that India is described as a Union of States. India is not described as a nation. There are two visions of this country. One vision, that it is a Union of States; meaning- it is a negotiation….Now there is another vision, a centralizing vision, the vision of a king, the idea of a king, which the Congress removed in 1947. We smashed that idea of a king. Now that idea of king has come back, that there is a king.”