Breach of privilege: Raghav Chadha challenges BJP to bring paper with forged signatures

A Rajya Sabha bulletin said the chairman had received complaints from MPs Sasmit Patra, S Phangnon Konyak, M Thambidurai and Narhari Amin, who alleged breach of privilege by Chadha "for inter-alia including their names without their consent, in violation of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business, in a motion on August 7".

Chadha had proposed the constitution of a select committee to consider the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and had included the names of the four MPs.

On Wednesday, the AAP termed the allegations against its Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha as “baseless” and accused the BJP of unleashing a campaign against him to tarnish his reputation as a parliamentarian.

“We condemn the BJP’s dirty tricks department for unleashing a campaign against a young and effective MP to tarnish his reputation as a parliamentarian. These are baseless allegations against a young budding, fearless and fierce parliamentarian and an orchestrated propaganda to harm his reputation,” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said in a statement.

Chadha has not yet received any notice from the privileges committee but whenever any notice comes, it will be responded to “effectively and comprehensively”, the statement added.

The AAP defended Chadha, contending that he did not violate the parliamentary rules and procedure while adding the names of the four MPs in his proposal.

“It is important to set the record straight that as per the parliamentary rules and procedure, no signature or written consent, whatsoever, is required before proposing names of members to a select committee,” the party said.

Since neither any signatures are needed nor submitted, there cannot be any “question of misrepresentation of signatures at all,” it contended.

“It is a mere proposal for acceptance or rejection of names. Select committees are non-partisan panels comprising members of all major parties. And, therefore, names from across the board were proposed,” the AAP said.

“The reference of names made by the AAP MP for select committee was only a proposal, to be accepted or rejected by the House. In this case, the House rejected the reference. So no question of inclusion of the names of the said complainants,” the party added.

The AAP argued that the rules further clearly state that names of the members can be withdrawn in case they have no intention of being a part of the committee.

In fact, the parliamentary bulletin issued, referring this matter to the privilege committee, nowhere mentions any term like "forged/forgery/sign/signature,” the party added.

Chadha said he along with other AAP MPs will hold a press conference on Thursday to expose the “nefarious designs of the BJP” seeking to tarnish his reputation.

“I, along with all other MPs of the Aam Aadmi Party, will address a very important press conference at AAP Headquarters in Delhi tomorrow on the issue of repeated false allegations levelled against me and the demand for privilege proceedings. I will expose the nefarious designs of BJP to tarnish my reputation as a parliamentarian,” he said in a post on ‘X’, a micro-blogging site previously known as Twitter.