The recovery of huge amount of cash from a distillery company linked to Congress’ Jharkhand Rajya Sabha MP Dhiraj Prasad Sahu and the threat posed by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a U.S. national who has been designated a terrorist by India, were among the key issues raised during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
BJP MP from Ranchi, Sanjay Seth, raised the issue during the Zero Hour and sought a reply from the Congress. Other BJP MPs sitting next to him displayed newspapers with reports of the recovery of cash to drive home their point.
Also read: Income Tax raids continue at premises linked to Congress MP Dhiraj Sahu
Briefly, the House witnessed a war of words between the BJP and Congress members on this issue. Rajendra Agrawal, who was chairing the proceedings, urged members not to name the Rajya Sabha member and asked them to put down the newspapers. Later, he expunged the direct references made against the Rajya Sabha member.
The Congress too has already distanced itself from the issue. On the sidelines of a press conference, when reporters asked former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to comment on the discovery of the cash, he said, “I have not seen ₹350 crore in my life. In fact, if you ask me, how many zeros are there, I will have to count”.
“The Congress party has nothing to do with the seizure of cash allegedly belonging to an individual or his business. We only run a party and there are members in the party for political purposes. We are not concerned about the business of an individual. He will explain when he chooses to explain,” Mr. Chidamabarm added.
The issue of Mr. Pannun also figured during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, with Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu urging the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to strongly take up his case with U.S. authorities.
Mr. Bittu also pointed out how Mr. Pannun has threatened to “blow up the Parliament building and warned passengers against boarding Air India flights”.
