Opposition parties seek reprieve for Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury at Lok Sabha panel meet

The Lok Sabha privileges committee meeting on Friday witnessed passionate requests from members of the opposition parties for giving reprieve for the suspended MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury - who is the Congress floor leader of the Lower House - even as many members from the ruling side in the panel too didn't pitch for harsher punishment for him, according to people aware of the matter.

But the proceedings remained inconclusive as the committee decided to ask Chowdhury to depose before it, tentatively on August 30, to present his case and clarifications before the panel makes its recommendation to the speaker.

This was the first meeting of the committee on the issue of Chowdhury since the Lok Sabha suspended him on August 10 over some contentious comments he made about Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the debate on the no-confidence motion. After the House passed a government-sponsored motion for Chowdhury's suspension, the chair also referred his case to the privileges committee for further probe and to recommend if any further action is required.


During Friday's meeting of the privileges committee, chaired by Sunil Kumar Singh (BJP), Congress nominee Kodikunnil Suresh made a fervent appeal to the committee members to provide relief to Chowdhury by recommending lifting of his suspension, said the people cited earlier.

Suresh is learnt to have argued that Chowdhury has already been given a severe punishment despite him being a senior member holding key posts such as the Congress House leadership and chairmanship of the Public accounts Committee (PAC) and pointed out that the suspended MP has already clarified in public that he had no intention to malign the PM. Some members, including TR Balu (DMK), Kalyan Banerjee (AITC) and Om Prakash Pawan Rajenimbalkar (SS-UBT), made similar appeals, said people in the know.

They said Suresh drew the attention of the committee to some past court judgements refusing to extend suspension of some MPs beyond a session.