Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, on August 30, revoked the suspension of Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from the lower house. The decision was taken hours after the Lok Sabha’s Privileges Committee, headed by BJP MP Sunil Kumar Singh, unanimously recommended that the Speaker revoke the suspension of Mr. Cowdhury. The Lok Sabha secretariat issued a circular announcing the decision. “The suspension of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, MP from the service of the House which was effected on August 10 till the submission of the report by the Committee of Privileges, has been revoked with effect from August 30,” the circular said.
Misunderstanding
Mr. Chowdhury was under suspension over remarks he made about Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a speech in Parliament. He appeared before the panel on August 30 and said his remarks were not aimed at hurting anyone and the Hindi dialect may have caused the trouble.
A member on the panel told The Hindu that the committee also adopted a resolution on the matter. “We heard Mr. Chowdhury in connection with the motion adopted by the House on August 10. We recommended that the Speaker revoke his suspension from the service of the House. The Speaker will take the final decision,” the member, on the condition of anonymity, said.
It is learnt that Mr. Chowdhury told the House that he used the Hindi dialect commonly spoken in West Bengal and meanings of certain words may have been misunderstood. He told the House that his mother tongue is Bengali and he may not have conveyed what he wanted while speaking in Hindi in the House. “Mr. Chowdhury told us that he did not want to hurt anyone’s sentiments. The committee unanimously decided to recommend that his suspension and other disciplinary proceedings following the suspension could be immediately revoked,” another member said.
Speaker follows precedent
The resolution was sent to the Speaker. The precedent is that unanimous recommendations of the Privileges Committee are considered by Speakers. In this case too, Mr. Birla honoured the recommendations of the panel.
It was the second meeting of the committee on this issue. On August 18, the panel studied the motion adopted by the House on “the gross, deliberate and repeated misconduct” of Mr. Chowdhury. The motion had said that Mr. Chowdhury’s conduct was utter disregard to the House and authority of the Chair, which led to his suspension from the service of the House with effect from August 10, 2023. The suspension was till the Privileges panel submitted its report to the Speaker.
