No convention or provision for authentication of points made in House: Kharge to Rajya Sabha chairman

PTI, Feb 9, 2023, 7:40 PM IST

Any direction or rule of the House cannot subvert the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech granted to members of Parliament, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said, asserting that any criticism of the government and its policies can never be equated with the ”dignity” of the Council of States.

Kharge also asserted that it would be an ”inversion of the system of governance” if the opposition members were expected to carry out complete investigation, gather evidence and then raise a matter on the floor of the House.

The remarks in a letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar come after Kharge was asked repeatedly by the Chair to authenticate some allegations he levelled in the House while speaking on the motion of thanks on the President’s address on Wednesday.

In his address, the Congress president targeted the government in the wake of the fraud-allegation-triggered rout in Adani Group company stocks.

Kharge said Article 105 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech for the members of Parliament and in consonance with this constitutional guarantee and rules of the House, a member is only required to authenticate any document that he lays on the table of the House.

”There is no convention or provision of authentication of points made in a speech on the floor of the House. Any direction or rule of the House cannot subvert the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of speech,” he said in his letter.

Kharge said that while participating in the debate on Wednesday directions were made by the Chair to authenticate six observations made by him during the course of his speech.

Citing Rule 238A, he said, Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States stipulate that ”the Chairman may at any time prohibit any Member from making any such allegation if he is of the opinion that such allegation is derogatory to the dignity of the Council or that no public interest is served by making such allegation”.

”Further, read with Rule 238, the term allegation refers to a matter of fact on which a judicial decision is pending; or refers to making a personal charge against a member.” He said the institution of Parliament is a platform to fix the accountability of the Executive. This necessitates that the policies and the decisions of the government are discussed, dissected and debated on the floor of the House. ”Any criticism of policies and decisions of the government and their fallouts cannot be construed as the allegation against any individual Member of the House. Besides, any criticism of the government, its policies and their impact can never be equated with the ‘dignity of the Council’. Further, it is difficult to fathom that in a parliamentary democracy, no public interest is served by criticism of policies and their consequences,” the Congress chief asserted.

The Rajya Sabha is also known as the Council of States.

He said there was no personal charge in any of his submissions, as defined by the rules and conventions of the House.

”The arrangement, as I understand, is that the opposition member, or any private member, raises issues on the basis of inputs from media, reports in public domain, or even confidential personal information. The member, after due diligence, draws the attention of the House to such issues and it is incumbent upon the government to investigate the matter and take appropriate action in consonance with the law of the land,” he said.

”I urge you to kindly look into the provisions of rules and conventions of the House and defend members’ rights and privileges on the floor of the House,” Kharge wrote.