Centre to go ahead with MP Dubey’s motion against Rahul Gandhi, drop its own

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

The notice seeks a substantive motion against Rahul, accusing him of working with “anti-national forces” and making unsubstantiated comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other individuals in the House during his participation in the debate on the President’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament.

Dubey’s notice seeks cancellation of the Lok Sabha membership of Rahul, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the Lower House. Rahul has said he would continue to speak for farmers and others no matter what action the government took 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 Rahul since Dubey, a private member, had 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 Lok Sabha committee of privileges or ethics or if it should be brought directly to the House.

“These things haven't been decided yet. The government has decided to move a motion. Rahul Gandhi violated rules and quoted from an unpublished memoir. He said several things in his Budget speech, including ‘the country has been sold out’. He used words like "nonsense" for the PM. There are several issues over which we wanted to give him a notice. But private MP Nishikant Dubey has now brought a substantive motion. For now, we have decided to drop the privilege motion we wanted to bring. Any MP can bring a motion," Rijiju said.

He said once the substantive motion was admitted, the government would decide on the advice of the Speaker on the way forward.