Ticker: Sandeshkhali row
New Delhi, Feb 19: The Lok Sabha’s Privileges Committee, which was to take up BJP MP Sukanta Majumdar’s complaint against West Bengal government officials, could not meet on Monday due to lack of a quorum.
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The development left many within the BJP disappointed as a few of its MPs, who are the committee’s members, did not turn up as well.
Sources said only three MPs, including the committee’s chairperson Sunil Kumar Singh besides Dilip Ghosh and Kalyan Banerjee, arrived for the meeting while one more MP chose to leave after putting in his signature.
Following the complaint of Majumdar, the West Bengal BJP president, that he faced “brutality” and “life-threatening injuries” from state police and administration officials during a protest after being not allowed to visit Sandeshkhali, the committee had asked Bengal’s chief secretary and the director general of police, among other officials, to appear before it at 10.30 am.
The officials were unlikely to appear due to prior engagements and the Supreme Court later in the day stayed the notices issued by the committee and fixed their plea for hearing after four weeks.
A top court bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud took up the pleas of West Bengal officials as the first matter on urgent mentioning by the senior officials.
The committee, official sources said, could have proceeded with the matter, noting that the Supreme Court’s decision came after its scheduled meeting.
Irrespective of the court’s order, Majumdar’s complaint remains on the committee’s agenda but the lack of a quorum ensured that there could be no forward development, they said.
While Singh and Ghosh are from the BJP, Banerjee is from the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress, which has been engaged in an intense political fight with the BJP over the Sandeshkhali row after some women accused TMC members of sexually assaulting them over a period of time under coercion.
The BJP’s Raju Bista, Janardan Singh Sigriwal, CP Joshi, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Congress’ K Suresh, DMK’s TR Baalu and the BJD’s Achyutananda Samanta are among the other members of the committee. (PTI)
