BJP privilege against Rahul

The BJP MPs on Thursday gave a notice of privilege in the Rajya Sabha against Congress President Rahul for disfiguring the name of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on his Twitter handle.

Jaitley had on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not intend to question the integrity of his predecessor Manmohan Singh when he raised doubts about Congress leaders meeting with officials from Pakistan. Rahul later posted a video of Modi’s statement and said Jaitley had reminded India that the prime minister never means what he says. In the tweet, Gandhi addressed the senior BJP leader as “Mr Jaitlie”.

The Twitter post appears to be an innocuous one, if read casually. The spelling 'Jaitlie' also appears to be a typo error. It says: "Dear Mr Jaitlie - thank you for reminding India that our PM never means what he says or says what he means." But this is followed by #BJPLies, which seems to give the game away.

According to a news portal, Rahul had timed the Twitter post strategically. It came at 8.52 pm yesterday, a few hours before Jaitley's birthday and the Congress' foundation day.

Today, as the Congress president Rahul addressed his party workers and leaders on the party's 133rd anniversary, he talked again about the BJP's alleged lies and compared it with his party's "truth". He said, "What is happening today in the country is a web of deceit... BJP operates on the basic idea that lie(s) can be used for political benefit. This is (the) difference between us and them. We might even lose but we will fight for truth."

BJP general secretary Bhupinder Yadav, MP from Rajasthan and a right hand man of BJP President Amit Shah, raised the privilege issue in the House, amid loud protests from the Congress benches. He claimed Rahul has "insulted" Jaitley by distorting his name to suggest that the BJP leader is given to lying.

“The members of this House have dignity,” Yadav told the House. “The name of Leader of the House Arun Jaitley has been intentionally misspelt by the Congress president with mala fide intentions to defame this House.”

He said there are “precedents such as that of NC Chatterjee in 1954” and requested Naidu to issue a notice to Gandhi under Rule 187, as per which a Parliament member may raise a question involving a breach of privilege by another. Naidu said that he would examine the motion and make an appropriate decision.