Amit Shah receives a privilege notice from Congress

 

In the Lok Sabha on Thursday, Congress Whip Manickam Tagore filed a privilege complaint against Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing him of deceiving the House over Kalawati Bandurkar, a farm widow from Maharashtra who Rahul Gandhi had seen in 2008.

The Congress MP referred to Shah's speech in the Lok Sabha during the no-confidence motion debate on Wednesday and recalled how Rahul told the story of a poor woman named Kalawati while referring to what he called 13 "failed" attempts to start the Congress leader's political career. He made this reference in his letter to Speaker Om Birla. 

Shah said during the speech that the Modi administration had made sure she received a house and the benefits of several government programs, but Congress refuted this claim by posting a video of Kalawati claiming that Rahul had assisted her in escaping poverty. In 2008, after her husband had committed himself as a result of a farm problem in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, Rahul had gone to her home. In his notice, Tagore claimed that Shah had violated parliamentary privilege by speaking to the House without respecting the sanctity of factual and true facts.

"The matter at hand relates to a declaration made by the Minister of Home Affairs in the Lok Sabha on August 9, 2013, in which he gave information about amenities allegedly given by the Government at the home of Kalawati, a farmer's widow from Maharashtra. To the utter dismay of the concerned us, Smt. Kalawati herself vehemently denied this claim to media outlets, explicitly stating that the Modi Government had not offered her any such amenities for the previous eight years; instead, Sh Rahul Gandhi had assisted her in building her home, he claimed.

He said, "This discrepancy between the statement made by the Union Minister and the reality as communicated by the affected Smt. Kalawati raises serious doubts about the veracity of the information presented in the Lok Sabha and it highlights a potential breach of privilege under Rule 22, Chapter 20 of the Lok Sabha Rules," in the hopes that Birla would take notice of this matter and consider taking appropriate action.

"I ask you to use your excellent authority to move a motion for breach of privilege against the Hon. Union Minister for his statement, which appears to be in stark contrast to the reality on the ground, and to order him to request an apology from the House of People for his incorrect and careless statement yesterday. The video clip and its URL are linked here, Tagore continued.