NEW DELHI : The Congress filed a notice in the Lok Sabha on Thursday over alleged privilege violations by Home Minister Amit Shah, charging him of lying about Kalawati Bandurkar, a widowed farmer from Maharashtra whom Rahul Gandhi had seen in 2008. Manickam Tagore, a Congress MP and the party’s whip in the Lok Sabha, sent the notification to Speaker Om Birla. Tagore shared the notification on X, formerly known as Twitter, and said, “I submitted a privilege motion against Sh Amit Shah for misleading the Parliament yesterday on smt Kalawati story to Honble Speaker.” In 2008, when her husband committed suicide as a result of an agricultural problem in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, Gandhi had gone to Bandurkar’s home. Shah had mentioned Rahul Gandhi’s 13 “failed” attempts to establish his political career during the no-confidence motion debate on Wednesday. He also recalled having told a story about a destitute woman named Kalawati. Shah claimed that the Modi administration made sure she received a home and benefited from a number of government programmes. In contrast, the Congress claimed that the Modi administration was lying about Kalawati and published a video of the farmer on X. In the video, Kalawati says that Rahul Gandhi helped her escape poverty. In his notice, Tagore alleged that Shah has 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 alleged.”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,” the legislator claimed. Tagore anticipated that the Speaker would be aware of this issue and take necessary action in view of the aforementioned conditions. “The motion for a violation of privilege described in Rule 22.To protect the transparency and integrity of our legislative system, Chapter 20 of the Lok Sabha Rules should be implemented. The Hon. Union Minister’s statement appears to be in direct opposition to the reality on the ground, so I ask you to use your esteemed authority to move a breach of privilege motion against him and instruct him to seek an apology from the House of People for his incorrect and careless statement from yesterday. In his note, Tagore stated, “The video clip and link of the same are supplied herewith.
