Gandhi was sent the notice by Lok Sabha secretariat on February 8, to which he has to reply by February 15

NEW DELHI — Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday said that there was nothing unparliamentary about what Rahul Gandhi had said about billionaire Gautam Adani and his relationship with prime minister Narendra Modi, in Parliament.

Reacting to the breach of privilege notice sent to the Congress MP by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, Kharge said, “Whatever Rahul Gandhi had mentioned in Parliament was already in the public domain and there is nothing unparliamentary about this. So he will respond to the notice accordingly.”

Gandhi was sent the notice by Lok Sabha secretariat on February 8, to which he has to reply by February 15.

Meanwhile, Dubey said that “Without giving any notice to Lok Sabha Speaker, you can’t raise such allegations against our prime minister. In the notice, we have asked Rahul Gandhi to show proof to the Speaker by February 15 that can prove his claims, or he must apologise in Parliament or else he will lose his Lok Sabha seat”.

The Congress MP had questioned Modi’s links with Adani, while pointing out at the businessman’s sudden rise in fortune after the BJP-led NDA came to power in 2014.

Gandhi had also accused the prime minister of crony capitalism.

According to Lok Sabha secretariat sources, the breach of privilege notice has sought a response from the Congress leader for making “misleading, derogatory, unparliamentary, and incriminatory statements” during a discussion on the president’s address in Lok Sabha on February 7. — IANS