Parliament security breach: Congress firm on home minister’s statement in both Houses

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday expressed its firm resolve to seek a statement from the Union Home Minister Amit Shah in both Houses of the Parliament over the serious security lapse that took place in the Lok Sabha on December 13. It said, without his statement, it did not see any possibility of the two Houses functioning.

The party also accused Shah of contempt of Parliament by speaking at a television channel on the subject when the House was in session.

Addressing a press conference, AICC general secretary in charge of the Communications Department, Jairam Ramesh pointed out, that while the government was trying to brush aside the incident on the first day as a small and minor one, later it invoked the stringent UAPA charges against the accused.

He said the home minister must also speak about the role of the BJP MP from Mysuru as to why he facilitated the entry of the accused into the parliament.

Without going into the merits of whether UAPA should have been invoked or not, he observed, that the very fact that such a stringent act has been invoked makes it incumbent upon the Home Minister to make a statement in both the Houses of the Parliament as the matter is very serious.

Ramesh said this is the collective stand of the Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners that the home minister should come to both Houses of the Parliament to make a statement and take questions on the issue.

The Congress general secretary pointed out, that only yesterday the home minister gave a detailed interview to a television channel. He asked if he could speak at length on television on the matter, why he could not speak in the Parliament when the House is in session.

He observed that this is the contempt of the Parliament and the Parliamentary traditions that the minister spoke on such a pressing issue when the House is very much in session.

Taking a dig at the home minister, Ramesh said, otherwise, the home minister can mostly be seen in the House but this time he probably did not find any excuse to blame Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for the incident. Taunting the home minister for trying to blame everything on Nehru, he remarked, that he was sure if Shah could establish a link between Nehru and those involved in the incident, he would be making a statement in the Parliament.

The Congress general secretary reiterated that his party as well as the INDIA partners did not have any intention to wash out the Parliament. He said their demand was simple that the home minister should come to both Houses of Parliament, make a statement and take questions as to how this security breach of such magnitude could take place.

Expressing hope that the home minister will make a statement on Monday when the house meets next, he pointed out, that these are practically the last four working days of the current Lok Sabha as the next session will be quite a brief one ahead of the General Elections.

Ramesh said, the floor leaders of the INDIA partners on Friday met in the morning and the next meeting of the floor leaders will be held on Monday morning with the same agenda.

He also announced that the next meeting of the INDIA leaders is scheduled for December 19 at 3 pm in New Delhi.