Harsimrat Badal threatens privilege motion against Congress MPs

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Friday threatened to move a privilege motion against two Congress parliamentarians for allegedly misbehaving with her in the Rajya Sabha.

Badal alleged that Congress members Renuka Chowdhury and Jairam Ramesh did not allow her to speak in the Upper House when she put up the matter of parliament's security in the wake of a video uploaded on social media by Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann on Thursday.

"I am astonished at the rudeness Jairam Ramesh and Renuka Chowdhury showed while speaking to me. They questioned me as to how could I come in the house when I was not its member and said I was disrupting the house proceedings," Badal told the media outside Parliament House.

She also alleged that Chowdhury called her "kachra" (trash).

"I am going to move privilege motion against them... this is not the way you behave with a woman and a minister," she said.

Badal is a member of the Lok Sabha but as a minister she can speak in either house of parliament. The Lok Sabha was on Friday afternoon adjourned till Monday following pandemonium over the video clip uploaded by Mann.

"For them, the lives of our jawans, our people hold no value. The video clip that has been uploaded could fall in wrong hands and the house should have discussed it," Badal added.

However, Renuka Chowdhury denied the allegations of misbehaviour and termed Badal's rant as "political drama".

"Where does the word 'kachra' crop up from? Either she has some problem with her English or with her hearing... I was speaking in English and not in Hindi," Chowdhury told TimesNow TV channel over phone.

"She is playing the victim card. They are losing in Punjab and are on the backfoot. If she wants to create a political drama as it can get her votes, then so be it," the Congress MP said.

--IANS

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