Congress moves privilege notice over Sushma's statement

The Congress on Friday moved a privilege notice against External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for what the party said was "false and misleading" statement during a short-duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha a day earlier.

In the notice under Rule 188, the opposition Congress said that during the discussion on India's foreign policy in the upper house on Thursday, Sushma Swaraj twice "completely denied that any speech or statement was made by any of the representatives of the Indian government at the 60th anniversary of the Bangdung Conference".

On Thursday, Congress leader Anand Sharma had said that leaders of other countries had remembered and recalled Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru at the conference but India's statement and the Minister's statement did not refer to Pandit Nehru at the event.

"We are shocked at the blatantly false and misleading statement given by the Minister for External Affairs on the floor of the house," the Congress said in its notice.

"It is also a matter of shame that during the reply, the Minister said that the Bangdung Conference is different from Asian-African Conference, whereas the fact is that the Asian-African Conference is popularly known as Bangdung Conference," the Congress added in the notice.

On Thursday, the Rajya Sabha witnessed sharp exchanges between the External Affairs Minister and some opposition leaders during her reply to the short-duration discussion.

--IANS

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