Congess moves privilege notice against Amit Shah, alleges "move to malign" Sonia Gandhi's reputation

In his notice to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the Congress leader alleged that the Home Minister had made unfounded allegations against Chairperson of Congress Parliamentary Party with "a premeditated motive to malign her reputation."

Jairam Ramesh cited Union Home Minister Amit Shah reply to the debate on the Disaster Management Bill, 2024 on March 25, 2025.

"The Home Minister's statement is blatantly false and is defamatory. This is tantamount to breach of privilege of Smt. Sonia Gandhi. Hence, this matter constitutes a breach of privilege and the contempt of the House as well," the Congress chief whip in Rajya Sabha said.

Quoting the Union Home Minister Amit Shah's speech during his reply to the debate on Disaster Management Bill 2024 on March 25, the Congress claimed that he had said, " The PM relief fund was made during the Congress regime, and during this Govt tenure, the PM Cares fund was started. During the Congress regime only one family had control and the Congress president was the member of this. The Congress President a part of a Government fund, what reply will they give to the people of this country. Does not anyone read or see this?"

This the Congress argued constructed a breach of privilege. The notice on the breach of privilege was given under terms of Rule 188 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) "for casting aspersions on Sonia Gandhi.

The Congress leader said that even though the Home Minister didn't take the name of Sonia Gandhi but he had categorically by implication referred to her and imputed motives to her vis-a-vis the functioning of the National Prime Minister's Relief Fund (NPMRF).

It is well established that it is breach of privilege and contempt of the House to cast reflections or make derogatory references to any member of the House, the Congress leader said.

Earlier speaking in the Upper House Sonia Gandhi had raised the issue of non-fulfillment of maternity entitlements under the National Food Security Act, 2013, and the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana.

"The full implementation of the maternity benefits provision requires an annual budget of around Rs. 12,000 crore. Surprisingly, the budget documents do not contain separate information on allocations for PMMVY. The allocation in 2025-26 for Samarthya is only Rs 2,521 crore. This clearly shows that the PMMVY is severely underfunded thereby violating the key provisions of the law passed by the Parliament," she said. (ANI)