NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha, who was suspended from Rajya Sabha for “breach of privilege” after complaints of ‘fraud’, changed his bio on X (formally known as Twitter) to ‘Suspended Member of Parliament, India’ on Saturday.
The AAP leader was suspended from the Upper House on Friday 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.
Chadha while reacting to his suspension from the upper house, asked if he was suspended because he asked questions from leaders of the ruling party. He also raised questions on what was his crime that led to his suspension, adding that was it because he asked for justice from BJP over the Delhi Services Bill.
“Why was I suspended? What was my crime? Was I suspended because I asked questions from the leaders of the largest party that is the BJP? Or my crime was that I put forth my point on the Delhi Services bill & asked for justice from BJP…This week I received two notices from the Committee of Privileges…Opposition is not given a chance to speak in Parliament…BJP is accusing me of forging signatures but the truth is any MP can propose the name for the formation of any committee and neither the signature nor the written consent of the person whose name is proposed is required,” Raghav Chadha said. (ANI)