Privilege notice against Sushma, VK Singh

New Delhi:Congress members from Punjab gave a breach of privilege notice in the Rajya Sabha against External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her colleague MoS VK Singh, accusing them of “deliberately misleading Parliament and the country on the status of 39 Indians who went missing in Iraq in 2014”.
Moving the notice, MPs Ambika Soni, Shamsher Singh Dullo and Partap Singh Bajwa said, “The External Affairs Minister and her colleague VK Singh deliberately misled families of 39 individuals who were slain in Mosul. For a period spanning between June 2014 and March 2018, the minister continued to state as a matter of fact that the individuals are not only alive, but that the government is also undertaking steps for their rescue. As such claims were made on the floor of Parliament and outside, this is a serious breach of Parliament privilege and a stringent action must be taken against the members for their gross acts of dereliction of public duty.”
The Congress leaders said the government actively worked to conceal the truth from the families of those killed in Iraq. The trio said the information about the death of slain Indians came out at least seven months ago, but the government still did not disclose that. “It is a tragic and inexcusable breach of duty that the External Affairs Minister, being in possession of this information (of the killing of Indians), failed to share the same with the grieving families. In fact, it is now clear that the only reason the government has disclosed the information now is compulsion because the Iraqi government would have otherwise done so,” they said.
Bajwa said, “It is also sad that Swaraj waited to come to Parliament to make the tragic announcement on March 20 when she knew it already. This could have been made known outside Parliament.”