Send AAP MP Bhagwant Mann to rehabilitation centre, say three MPs

Wednesday, 03/08/2016

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=162251&boxid=59176&uid=&dat=2016-08-03

New Delhi: As many as three Lok Sabha members have written to the Lok Sabha panel probing AAP MP Bhagwant Mann’s reported breach of Parliament security, demanding he should be sent to a rehabilitation centre for curing him of alleged alcohol addiction.

The signitories to the letter are Mahesh Girri of the BJP, Prem Singh Chandumajra of the BJP ally Shiromani Akali Dal, and suspended Aam Aadmi Party MP Harinder Singh Khalsa, who represents Fatehgarh Sahib constituency in Punjab.

The nine-member panel headed by Bharatiya Janata Party member Kirit Somaiya is holding daily meetings since it has to submit its report by August 3. Mann has been told not to attend parliament till that date.

The three MPs urged the committee chairman that Mann, who represents Sangrur constituency in Punjab, should be allowed to attend the house only after undergoing the de-addiction course.

“We will be grateful if Maan was sent to a rehabilitation centre for de-addiction by the Lok Sabha at its expenditure. It is only after this should he be allowed to attend the house proceedings,” the three MPs said in their letter.

“It is common knowledge in parliament that the said MP continuously remains under the influence of intoxicants or liquor and doesn’t attend parliament proceedings without being intoxicated,” the letter said.

“Such conduct of the member is quite unbecoming of the MP, who is a chosen representative of the people and is considered a role model of his constituency. This reflects very poorly and denigrates the seat of a member of the august house,” the letter added. On July 22, Khalsa wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, requesting for a seat change as Mann, who sits next to him in the lower house, “comes to the house in an inebriated state”.

Mann ‘misusing’ video controversy, finds Parliamentary panel

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha panel constituted by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to probe Bhagwant Mann’s alleged breach of parliament security is of unanimous view that the Aam Aadmi Party MP is “misusing the issue” but the panel has not yet decided that what action should it recommend.

The nine-member panel, headed by BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, has been asked by Speaker Mahajan to submit its report by August 3.

Sources said that no decision has been taken yet in this regard but there is unanimity in the panel that Mann is “misusing the issue” and is now “politicising” it by deliberately dragging Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the controversy.

The panel has also taken cognizance of the letter written by three Lok Sabha members -- Mahesh Girri of the BJP, Prem Singh Chandumajra of the Akali Dal and suspended AAP lawmaker Harinder Singh Khalsa -- demanding Mann to be sent to rehabilitation centre for de-addiction. “The panel may take notice of the letter also before presenting its report to the Lok Sabha Speaker. We will again sit tomorrow morning before submitting the report,” an informed source said. The panel has earlier expressed its displeasure over Mann’s response, saying the AAP leader had mixed up his unconditional apology with references to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the terror attack on the IAF base in Pathankot.

In a five-page letter to the panel, Mann said if the committee felt he had made a mistake, he was ready to tender unconditional apology. But Mann insisted that Prime Minister Modi should also be summoned by the committee as he had allowed Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI to visit the Pathankot airbase after the terror attack.