Privilege motion threat: Harsimrat’s act a political drama, says Renuka

NEW DELHI: A day after Union food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal threatened to move a privilege motion against senior Congress leaders Renuka Chowdhury and Jairam Ramesh for allegedly misbehaving with her in the Rajya Sabha, Renuka on Saturday accused the minister of resorting to “cheap political drama for two minutes of fame”.

Harsimrat, a Lok Sabha member from Bathinda, has alleged the two Congress leaders questioned her presence in the Upper House and did not allow her to raise a matter of national security in the wake Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Bhagwant Mann’s video, and has also accused Renuka of calling her “kachra” (filth).

Rubbishing Harsimrat’s threat of privilege motion, Renuka said: “They (Shiromani Akali Dal) are losing in Punjab and that is why this desperation, this political manipulation and this public drama that she is doing.”

Renuka, a Rajya Sabha MP from Andhra Pradesh, said she was fighting for the Special Category Bill, which was a private member bill, when Harsimrat tried to raise Mann’s issue. “We never interrupt to take away the privilege of a private member who has brought his bill with great difficulty. We get the opportunity and the chance, and she has removed that by this political drama and that’s what it was,” said the MP.

Claiming the SAD leader could have raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, Renuka said: “Where is the compulsion for her to come to the Rajya Sabha and raise this issue.” ANI