Jairam Ramesh submits breach of privilege notice against PM Modi for comments against former Vice President Hamid Ansari

New Delhi: Congress Rajya Sabha Chief whip Jairam Ramesh has submitted a breach of privilege notice against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making “derogatory” remarks against former Vice President and Chairman of the Upper House Hamid Ansari during a speech in Lok Sabha earlier this month.

Ramesh, who is also Congress General Secretary (Communications), wrote to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar seeking initiation of breach of privilege proceedings citing that no Prime Minister has ever attacked a former Lok Sabha Speaker or a Rajya Sabha Chairman in the manner in which Modi has done.

He shared the letter on ‘X’ saying he has submitted the letter against Modi for his “outrageous statements” against Ansari while the Prime Minister is trying to “bolster his diminished stature internationally”, in a veiled reference to his ongoing Russia visit.

Ramesh’s notice came against the backdrop of remarks by Modi during his reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address in Lok Sabha on July 2 in which the Prime Minister is accused of casting aspersions on Ansari accusing him of favouring the Opposition in Rajya Sabha after he became Prime Minister.

Modi had said without taking Ansari’s name, “no matter how many numbers they claim, when we came in 2014, our strength in the Rajya Sabha was very low, and the Chair's inclination was somewhat on the other side.”

Notwithstanding the fact that the Prime Minister did not specifically take the name of Ansari, Ramesh said, needless to state that these “derogatory remarks” were attributed to the former Chairman of Rajya Sabha.

“The accusation attributed to Dr Hamid Ansari of 'leaning' towards the Opposition made by the Prime Minister is wholly unacceptable and grossly derogatory to say the least, apart from being completely false,” Ramesh added.

Incidentally, he said, this is not the first time that the Prime Minister has targeted Ansari and referred to Modi's farewell speech during a function on 10 August, 2017, when the Prime Minister had alluded to the retiring Chairman's earlier diplomatic postings in West Asia in a “mischievous manner”.

“The Prime Minister has broken all Parliamentary norms, decorum and, as a matter of fact, set a new low to the dignity of the very office of the Prime Minister of India. Such defamatory remarks made on the floor of Lok Sabha, attributing derogatory motives to the former Chairman of Rajya Sabha when he was not present to defend himself is tantamount to grave disregard and disrespect to the high office of the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, as well as to the Rajya Sabha itself,” Ramesh said.

Last week, Ramesh said in a post on X, “one thing that the non-biological PM said in the Lok Sabha on July 2nd has escaped much media notice. What he said was simply awful and unacceptable, and ought to have been immediately expunged.”