Pained that no one has claimed cash found in Rajya Sabha chamber, says Vice President Dhankhar

Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar expressed pain on Monday over the fact that no member of Parliament has come forward to claim a wad of currency notes found in the Rajya Sabha chamber last month, saying it is a collective challenge to our ethical standards.

A wad of Rs 500 notes found from the seat allotted to Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha on December 6, during the winter session of Parliament, had rocked the Upper House, with the opposition and ruling alliance members trading charges and Singhvi demanding a probe into the "security lapse".

The Congress leader had also suggested that glass enclosures should be erected to prevent anyone from planting "ganja" on seats in an MP's absence.


"Just imagine my pain. Only a month back or so, we found on a particular seat in the Rajya Sabha, the Council of States, a wad of notes, Rs 500 in denomination. What has really pained me is that no one has come to claim it," Dhankhar said at a book launch here.

He described it as a "very serious issue".

"You can carry notes, maybe out of necessity, but then no one has claimed, that is a collective challenge to our ethical standards," he said.

Dhankhar pointed out that for a long time, there was no committee on ethics. It was only in the late 1990s that the Rajya Sabha for the first time came to have a committee on ethics, which is functional.

"As the chairman, Rajya Sabha, I can tell you ladies and gentlemen, anyone who is there in the Rajya Sabha as a member is a human resource to reckon with brilliant credentials, great exposure and experience, but when it comes to action, they are guided by someone else," he lamented.

He was apparently referring to MPs following party lines while raking up issues in the House. In the past, Dhankhar had said that though most MPs are against it, they cause House disruptions as their respective parties direct them to do so.