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'Forged' letter issue rears its head again

The controversy over the 'forged' letter allegedly written by the cabinet secretary opposing Air-India divestment took a new turn on Thursday with the Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi referring the notice of breach of privilege against Divestment Minister Arun Shourie to Rajya Sabha chairman.

The notice was given by Congress member Pawan Kumar Bansal objecting to Shourie referring the letter to Central Bureau of Investigation for a probe.

The letter, purportedly written by the cabinet secretary to the Prime Minister's Office, was read out by his (Bansal's) party colleague Priyaranjan Dasmunsi in the House last week during a special discussion on divestment triggering the controversy.

Giving a ruling on Bansal's notice, the Speaker observed that since Shourie was a member of Rajya Sabha, he was referring this matter to its chairman for appropriate action.

Balayogi recalled that the Committee of Privileges of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in the report of their joint sitting in 1954 laid down the procedure to be followed in the event of a member of one House allegedly committing a breach of privilege of the other (House).

In terms of that procedure, when a question of breach of privilege is raised in any House in which a member of the other House is involved, the presiding officer of the House in which the question of privilege is raised has to refer the case to the presiding officer of the other House for appropriate action, he said.

Bansal, in his notice, contended that since the letter was quoted by Dasmunsi in the House, it formed part of the proceedings and the investigation with regard to its authenticity should have been referred to the Speaker instead of the CBI for a probe.

Bansal said the minister committed a breach of privilege by seeking verification of the letter and also by referring the matter to CBI for investigation.

Shourie had told the House that the letter was a forged one after the cabinet secretary informed him that he had not written any such letter. The minister had said he would get the matter probed by the CBI.

Raising the issue during zero hour, Bansal said he had given a notice of breach of privilege against Shourie and wanted to know about it.

He said they were not against any probe but the minister got a photo-copy of the letter from Dasmunsi and referred it to CBI.

Deputy Speaker P M Sayeed had told him that his notice was under consideration of the Speaker.

Bansal also wanted to know the fate of the privilege notice he had given against Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha three days ago for misleading the House.

Sayeed observed that too was under the consideration of the Speaker.

Balayogi had held two meetings with senior leaders of some political parties early this week, which had witnessed divergent views. Government had favoured that the matter be referred to the House Committee but Congress insisted on it being probed by a Privileges Committee.

The House is scheduled to be adjourned sine die Friday.

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