Aam Aadmi Party refuted the alleged claims of “wrongful signatures” in a press conference held by the Member of Parliament Shri Raghav Chadha and Shri Sanjay Singh. Shri Raghav Chadha explained the process of forming a Select Committee and clarified that his actions were within the framework of parliamentary rules. He presented official parliamentary documents to counter the allegations against him and stressed that the BJP was spreading misinformation. “I challenge the BJP to present the papers which they claim, have wrongful signatures,” said Raghav.
Shri Raghav Chadha started his statement by quoting, “Repeat a lie a thousand times and it becomes the truth”.
He said, “This is the mantra of BJP. In general, it’s been observed, if ‘The Committee of Privileges’ starts any proceedings against a Member of the Parliament, the MP refrains from commenting in public. But today, it has become a compulsion for me to clear things out against the propaganda and misinformation being peddled by the BJP. Even today, I will refrain from commenting against the Committee of Privileges and Chairperson of the house. I’ll only put the truth in front of you.”
“Rajya Sabha follows the rulebook, Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States. I want to elaborate on what’s written in this rulebook. This rulebook states, for the formation of any Select Committee, any member of the house can propose the names. It doesn’t require signatures or written consent by them. But BJP has spread the lies that wrongful signatures have been put. No signatures are required or submitted for the proposal of the formation of the Select Committee. I want to challenge the leaders of the BJP to show me that piece of paper, where these “wrong signatures” are. They should do this if they are claiming that I have submitted such a document,” he added.
Among others present in the press conference were: AAP leader Sanjay Singh, Sushil Gupta, ND Gupta, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Sanjeev Arora , Sant Seechewal, Sushil Kumar Rinku.
Shri Raghav Chadha further stated, “BJP’s blatant ignorance isn’t news to us. But let me highlight that as per the processes if there comes any controversial Bill in the Parliament, and of any Member of Parliament thinks that the members should deliberate more on it, states that the suggested amendments should be done and voting should not take place till then. This has a process and it requires the formation of a select committee. And for the formation, it requires the proposal of a few names. Members who don’t want to be a part of this committee can withdraw their names. I reiterate this is just a proposal, and not binding.”
“Let me explain this using an example. Assume I send an invitation to 10 people for my birthday party. 8 out of 10 individuals accept my invitation and 2 refuse. And instead, they question my invitation and say: How dare I invite them?”
Shri Raghav Chadha brought the official Parliamentary Bulletin of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, regarding the complaints that have been filed against him, the case that has been referred to the Committee of Privileges. He claimed, “In this whole Parliamentary Bulletin there is no usage of words like ‘forgery or forged signatures.’ The only thing that has been stated is to investigate the issue, but it’s tough to deal with the misinformation being propagated by the BJP. As far as the case of the Parliamentary Privileges Committee is concerned, proceedings against the biggest of leaders of this country had been initiated by the Parliamentary Privileges Committee in the past. This includes names like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indira Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Morarji Desai, Sushma Swaraj, and Arun Jaitley. And if I have been included in such a list, then I don’t mind fighting for the truth. And I will strongly put forward my response to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee. I come from the land of the Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh and I will fight for justice and firmly believe that in the end, Parliamentary Privileges Committee will do what’s justified.”
“I want to tell you why this happened to me, on Monday noon, I spoke vigorously against the ‘Delhi Ordinance Bill’. Exactly after 6 hours, BJP started accusing me of this, BJP doesn’t have problems with the fact that I proposed a few names for the formation of the Committee, but they have problems with the fact that how is it that a 34-year-old young MP, has outdared them? How is that that a young MP is asking questions to us? As the Home Minister said, how come a leader of a “supari jitni party”, as claimed by Home Minister Amit Shah, question the biggest leaders of the biggest party in the parliament? We have exposed their double standards, sought justice for the people of Delhi, and even fought for the justice of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani and that pains them, they fear this. BJP is after me completely and it is the second time in the week I have received a notice from the Committee of Privileges. This has possibly never happened to me or any MP in the history of independent India,” Raghav Chadha stated.
“Today, BJP, by all possible means, is trying to suppress the voice of the opposition. For example, the way they cancelled the membership of Rahul Gandhi, our two MPs Sanjay Singh and Sushil Kumar Rinku were suspended, the mic of the leader of the opposition is being switched off. If any opposition leader speaks against the BJP, he’s being blackmailed by them that the CBI, ED will raid your residence. The is how the BJP is trying to install “Undeclared Emergency” and this is their motto – suppress my voice. But I want to tell them ‘this is the voice of a youth, a soldier of Arvind Kejriwal. They can all the accusations, run all the proceedings against me, but this voice won’t be suppressed by you,” Shri Raghav Chadha said.
In his request from the media persons, Shri Raghav Chadha stated, “I humbly request you to show the truth, and only the truth. Please don’t get influenced by the BJP and run any news that has no truth attached to it. You are the fourth pillar of the democracy, please don’t get trapped in BJP’s propaganda. Some media houses tried to run a propaganda against me and I am compelled to take legal actions against them. In my conclusion, I want to convey that I am compelled to register the complaints against those MPs mostly from the BJP who are part of the Lok Sabha I would seek justice from the judiciary as well. I am ready to fight all possible battles, I am not afraid of the BJP and I will never be.”
