Ronen's 'headless chickens' sent to privileges panel

MUCH FISSION

India's Ambassador to the US Ronen Sen's recent alleged remarks about MPs and the Indo-US nuclear deal have been referred to the privileges committee of Parliament. Highly placed sources confirmed that Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee took this step today.

While the government has stood by Sen throughout the furore and ruled out recalling him, now there are strong possibilities that he will be summoned to New Delhi to appear in person before the 15-member privileges committee headed by Congress MP Kishore Chandra Deo.

Ronen, who was selected for the ambassador's post by the present government, was one of the key players in hammering out the landmark nuclear deal.

However, recently he faced a storm of controversy over his interview which quoted him saying: "Why do you have all this running around like headless chickens, looking for a comment here or comment there, and these little storms in a tea-cup?"

Many MPs, cutting across party lines, read the comment as an attack to them. His comments and observations about the deal were also not taken favourably by the MPs as the matter was scheduled for discussion in Parliament.

BJP's Vijay Kumar Malhotra and CPI(M) MPs moved privilege notices against Sen last week. The Speaker had also assured that he would take appropriate steps in this matter, while the Left parties joined hands with the Opposition in demanding Sen be recalled from his job.

Sen sent a hurried response saying he was misquoted or quoted out of context and that "headless chicken" was a "tactless observation" on his media friends. However, despite offering his "unqualified apologies", his case will now be investigated for breach of privileges.