AAP MP Raghav Chadha suspended from Rajya Sabha over ‘breach of privilege’

New Delhi [India]: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha was suspended on Friday from the Rajya Sabha for “breach of privilege” after complaints of ‘fraud’.

The move came after a complaint from four MPs alleging he named them in a house panel without their consent.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, while announcing Chadha’s suspension, said, “…I suspend Raghav Chadha from the service of the Council till the Council has the benefit of the report by the Committee of Privileges.”

 

His suspension followed a motion moved by the Leader of the House Piyush Goyal who sought action against the AAP leader for including names of some members of the Upper House without their consent in a proposed select committee for the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

However, according to the AAP, the suspension has been done due to Raghav’s press conference yesterday defending himself in the alleged breach matter.

“Nowhere has Piyush Goyal’s motion for suspension or notice served by Privilege Committee mentioned the words – forgery or fake, signatures, farziwada etc. It doesn’t even remotely allege anything to this effect. The Leader of the House has also quoted excerpts from the Press Conference on 10th August 2023 and quoted the example of using birthday invitation to explain the process of consent,” the party said.

Earlier on August 8, Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the Rajya Sabha alleged fraud after five MPs of the Upper House — S Phangnon Konyak, Narhari Amin and Sudhanshu Trivedi of BJP, M Thambidurai of AIADMK and Sasmit Patra of BJD — said that their name was included without their consent in a motion moved by Chadha in the House.

“Two members (BJD MP Sasmit Patra and BJP MP Dr Sudhanshu Trivedi) are saying that they have not signed the motion (to be part of select committee) moved by AAP MP Raghav Chadha. Now it is a matter of investigation how the motion was signed,” said Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Rajya Sabha on Delhi Services Bill.

While addressing a press conference on Thursday, the AAP leader hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over “forged signatures” allegations by five Rajya Sabha MPs and challenged the BJP to show him the piece of paper where they are claiming the forged signatures.

“I challenge the BJP leaders to bring the paper on which forged signatures were done,” he said.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, on Wednesday, sent the complaints of the MPs to the privileges committee to look into the matter.