New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday downplayed the showcause notice issued to him by the Parliamentary Ethics Committee asking him to respond to questions on whether he had once declared himself a British citizen, saying that he would deal with the concerned matter.
“We will deal that,” Rahul told the media here after stepping out of the Lok Sabha where he made a statement over crop damage due to incessant rains and hailstorms. “We have given the statement in the parliament on farmers’ crop damaged in the entire northern belt.
We have asked the government to send the teams to see for themselves the loss that has happened to farmers,” he added.
Speaking in the House earlier, the Congress vice-president demanded a statement by Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, saying that things could not be allowed to get out of hand the way they had last time.
“The government must act to give relief to farmers affected by crop damage due to hailstorm,” he said in the Lok Sabha. In response, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the Congress vice-president had raised a serious issue, adding that the Agriculture Minister would make a statement in the House on Tuesday. Rahul had earlier given an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha on the issue.
The current spell of rain and hailstorm in parts of Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and other northern states has raised the fears of kharif crop loss among farmers.
The Parliamentary Ethics Committee, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran Lal Krishna Advani, had earlier issued a showcause notice to Rahul, asking him to respond to questions on whether he had once declared himself a British citizen.
Parliamentary Ethics Committee member Arjun Ram Meghwal told ANI that it was a very serious matter and added the committee would discuss the further course of action once the Congress vice-president responds.
ANI