Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had a verbal spat in the Lok Sabha on Thursday over personal remarks reportedly made by the latter during the debate on the Judges Salaries and Conditions of Service Bill that was passed in the Lower House on Wednesday.
The spat occurred during Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, when Mr. Tharoor objected to comments made on him during his speech on the Bill in the House, which was brought to his notice later when he went through the verbatim of the proceedings later in the day. “It was said that I have a pending case against me in the court and so I should not participate in the discussion. The truth is that there is no case pending against me but even if there were it cannot prevent any member from participating in the discussion,” he said. Mr. Tharoor has been acquitted in the Sunanda Pushkar death case this year. Speaker Om Birla remarked that indeed debates on Bills should stick to the subject of the Bill and nothing else.
Responding to Mr. Tharoor within the same Zero Hour period, as it came to a close, Mr. Dubey said that he had raised the issue precisely because the Speaker had asked all MPs to stick to the subject of the debate. “I raised a point of order under rule 352,” he said, pointing that many opposition MPs had been raising court-related issues pertaining to chief ministers of BJP-ruled States, Home Minister, BJP MPs of the Rajya Sabha. “If you raise one accusatory finger pointing here, four will point back at you,” he said.
This is not the first time Mr. Tharoor and Mr. Dubey have faced off against each other. In July this year, Mr. Dubey asked for Mr. Tharoor’s removal as chairperson of the standing committee on Information Technology and moved a privilege motion against him stating that the latter had tried to discuss issues not circulated in the agenda before hand including the Pegasus snooping allegations.
