Rajasthan Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani on Monday referred a privilege motion against an RLD member Subhash Garg to the privilege committee amid strong protests from the Opposition benches.
Government Chief Whip Jogeshwar Garg moved the motion in the House against the former minister, whose party, the RLD, is a coalition partner in the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, for “misleading the House” by giving wrong information about the issuance of notices to the residents of Lohagarh, Bharatpur.
The chief whip, while moving the motion, said the member, in his mention about problems of the residents of Lohagarh fort in Bharatpur on February 24, stated that the notices issued by officials about legality of their houses created scare among people. “This was not correct, the member by making a wrong statement misled us and also wasted the time of the House,” he added.
This evoked protests from the Opposition benches as the members resorted to slogan shouting and creating pandemonium in the House for some time.
Leader of the Opposition Tikaram Julie termed the move against the member “murder of democracy”. He said such acts would deter members from raising issues and problems of their respective constituencies. “Such an approach should not be a matter of concern only for the Opposition members but should be deemed as the cause of worry for all the members of the House, from both sides,” said the LoP.
This will not stop here, the government would one day contemplate on even filing of the cases against the members, he warned.
Congress Whip Rafiq Khan, Deputy CLP leader Ramkesh Meena, and several other members including Harimohan Sharma, and Rohit Bohra called the move anti-freedom of expression.
Speaker Devnani dismissed the Opposition’s stance saying “there is no harm in referring the motion to the committee, let the panel look into it”.