The Congress on Thursday gave a notice of breach of privilege by Union home minister Amit Shah for allegedly not speaking the truth on Maharashtra farm widow Kalawati Bandurkar who Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had met in 2008.
The notice was given to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla by Congress MP and the party’s whip in the House, Manickam Tagore.
“I submitted a privilege motion against Amit Shah for misleading Parliament yesterday on Smt Kalawati story to the Speaker,” Tagore said on X, formerly known as Twitter, while sharing a copy of the notice.
Earlier this week, Tagore had moved a breach of privilege notice against BJP lawmaker Nishikant Dubey, accusing him of misleading the Lower House through his allegations against Rahul and Sonia Gandhi’s links with China.
Gandhi visited Kalawati in 2008 after her husband died by suicide following a farm crisis in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region.
During a debate on the no-confidence motion in the House on Wednesday, Shah spoke about 13 “failed” attempts to launch Gandhi’s political career and recalled how the latter narrated a tale of a poor woman named Kalawati.
The Union minister said it was the Narendra Modi-led government which ensured that the widow got a home and benefited from various government schemes.
The Congress, however, claimed Shah’s statement was false and also shared a purported video of the farmer in which Kalawati is heard saying Gandhi helped her tide over poverty.
In his notice, Tagore alleged that Shah had breached parliamentary privilege by not upholding the sanctity of accurate and truthful information when addressing the House.
“The issue in question pertains to a statement made by the Hon’ble Minister of Home Affairs in Lok Sabha yesterday i e. 09.08.2023, wherein he provided details of facilities purportedly extended by the Government at the house of smt Kalawati, a farmer’s widow from Maharashtra. However, to the utter dismay of the concerned us, this statement has been vehemently refuted by the concerned Smt Kalawati herself to media channels who has explicitly stated that the modi Government has not provided any such facilities for the past eight years instead Sh Rahul gandhi helped her in building her house,” he said.
“This discrepancy between the statement made by the Hon’ble 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,” he added.
Tagore said he hoped the Speaker would take cognisance of the matter and consider initiating appropriate action.
“The breach of privilege motion, as outlined in Rule 22. Chapter 20 of the Lok Sabha Rules, should be initiated to ensure the accountability and integrity of our parliamentary system,” he said.
“Therefore, I request you to exercise your esteemed authority to move a breach of privilege motion against the Hon’ble Union Minister for his statement which appears to be in direct contradiction to the ground reality and direct him to seek apology from the House of People for his wrong and irresponsible statement yesterday. The video clip and link of the same is attached herewith,” he added.
Meanwhile, Kalawati said she received ₹3 lakh for constructing a house under the state government’s “Gharkul Yojana” in 2013, a ration card in 2009 and electricity connection in 2008 immediately after Gandhi’s visit to her home at Jalka.
