Cong to move privilege motion against agri minister Chouhan for misleading RS

Congress MPs Randeep Surjewala and Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday submitted a notice to move a privilege motion in the Rajya Sabha against Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, alleging that he "deliberately misled" the House and made "incorrect assertions".

In their letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, the Congress leaders said during a discussion on the functioning of the ministry of agriculture and farmers' welfare on August 2, "misleading and incorrect assertions" were made by the minister.

"The minister deliberately misled the house. It is a clear-cut case of breach of privilege of the House. The consent of your good self is sought under Rule 187 for raising the question of privilege under Rule 190 and reference of the same to the Committee of Privileges under Rule 191," read the letter to Dhankhar written on Surjewala's letterhead.

"The incontrovertible facts are -- the minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, asserted that the Congress government led by Manmohan Singh did not implement the report of the Swaminathan Commission.... Chouhan did not disclose the fact that the present NDA-BJP government has submitted an affidavit dated February 6, 2015 in the Supreme Court.... the Ministry for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare has conceded that out of 201 issues, only 26 action points remained for further action in the report," the Congress leaders said.

It clearly means that 175 action points mentioned in the Swaminathan Commission's report were either implemented or were under implementation.

This affidavit of the agriculture ministry submitted by the National Democratic Alliance-Bharatiya Janata Party government clearly negates and exposes the false statement made by the minister, the Congress leaders said and attached a copy of the affidavit with the letter.

The minister also asserted in the House that the previous Congress-led government did not implement the Swaminathan Commission report on the ground that it would distort the market, the Congress leaders said.

The truth is that the present NDA-BJP government submitted in the same affidavit dated February 6, 2015 that giving 50 per cent profit to farmers over the cost would distort the market, Surjewala added.

The minister, thus, clearly "misled" the House, the two leaders alleged.

They pointed out that Chouhan also asserted that the BJP-NDA government has not allowed the price of the DAP fertiliser bag to ever be increased and that the price has remained at Rs 1,350.

"The truth of the matter is that the price of one DAP fertiliser bag under the NDA-BJP government has gone up from Rs 1,150 to Rs 1,350. This is a clear increase of Rs 200 per bag. The statement of the minister is obviously wrong and he has misled the House," they said.

Surjewala and Singh pointed out that Chouhan asserted on the floor of the House that while the weight of one bag of urea has been reduced from 50 kg to 45 kg, the price of the bag has also been reduced.

"This is also factually incorrect. The price of a 50-kg bag of urea was Rs 271 and it has remained the same despite reduction of 5 kg of urea. Even if one takes the statement of the minister that the price of the bag has become Rs 266 after reduction of 5 kg of Urea, it is still a misleading statement," they said.