BJP to move privilege motion against Chidambaram

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BJP on Tuesday decided to move a privilege motion against Home Minister P. Chidambaram accusing him of showing ‘disrespect’ to Parliament by making a statement outside on the recent controversy over allegedly helping a local hotelier.

The decision was taken at the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting held under the chairmanship of L. K. Advani. Leaders of opposition in both Houses Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley and other senior leaders of the party were also present.

"Chidamabaram has talked to the media outside when the Parliament session is on. Instead of making a statement inside Parliament after giving a notice, which every minister has, he decided to give a statement to the media outside. This amounts to disrespect of Parliament. Yashwant Sinha has moved a notice of privilege against him," said BJP leader S. S. Ahluwalia.

He said the party also felt that it was ‘not proper’ on the part of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to give a clean chit to Chidamabaram in his onboard interaction with the media on his return from Russia.

"The Prime Minister has also given a clean chit to him. This is not right. Parliament will decide what is right or not. All papers should be put before Parliament. There should be discussion and then Parliament will decided what is right or not. Giving such a certificate when the Parliament is on is not right. It amounts to disrespect of Parliament," said Ahluwalia.

On his way back from Moscow, Singh had appeared to reject the opposition criticism of Chidambaram. The Prime Minister said Chidambaram's "statement is there for anybody to see and he (Chidambaram) said that he is not guilty of the type of blame that is being sought to be place on his shoulder."

Opposition has accused Chidambaram of helping a Delhi hotelier, a former client of his, in getting some cases of forgery and cheating withdrawn, a charge flatly rejected by the Home Minister.