Opposition leaders of the newly formed alliance INDIA moved a privilege motion against Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, Piyush Goyal, on Tuesday  for using “unparliamentary language” against them.

Congress General Secretary in-charge Communication Jairam Ramesh confirmed submitting the privilege motion against Goyal after he called the opposition leaders “traitors”.

“Today at 1300 hrs, the floor leaders of INDIA parties in the Rajya Sabha submitted a privilege motion against Leader of the House Piyush Goyal for addressing the Opposition as all of them “traitors”. Nothing less than an apology from him on the floor of the House, when it is in order, will do,” he tweeted.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar informed the House that Congress leader Jairam Ramesh met him in his chamber and told him that Leader of the House Piyush Goyal used an “inappropriate word.” 

The leader of the house, however, urged the Chair to expunge if any unparliamentary remark was made by him in the House.

Jairam Ramesh also informed about the walk-out of the Opposition leaders when the proceedings resumed at 2 pm, because of the “continued refusal of the Leader of the House Piyush Goyal to apologise for the highly objectionable and completely unacceptable remarks he made against leaders of the INDIA parties.”

What is privilege motion?

The concept of parliamentary privilege means that certain rights including the right of free expression in the course of Parliamentary debates has been conferred to the Members of Parliament for conducting the business of the Parliament.

If there is a belief that such a privilege has been breached, a motion can be raised by any member of the House.

The right to raise a question of privilege is based on satisfying two conditions, namely – the question shall be restricted to a specific matter of recent occurrence, and  the matter requires the intervention of the Council.