Left co-sponsored privilege motion against Jaswant: Yechury

New Delhi, Aug 2 (UNI) The Left has co-sponsored a privilege motion against former External Affairs Minsiter and author of the controversial book 'A Call to Honour' Jaswant Singh for not sharing information about a 'mole' in PMO s office.

''The motion, currently under the consideration of the Rajya Sabha chairman, has been co-sponsored by members of the CPI(M), Samajwadi Party and the Congress,'' CPI (M) Rajya Sabha member Sitaram Yechury told UNI after a press conference in the premises of the Parliament.

On a possible agreement between the government and the Left parties on the proposed Banking and Insurance bills, he said a meeting between party leaders and Finance Minister P Chidambaram had taken place yesterday. ''The discussions are going on,'' Mr Yechury added.

Earlier in the press conference, Mr Yechury, a member of the party Polit Bureau, cited certain portions from the book, which the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha had read out during his speech in the House, to stress his point that Mr Singh had failed to substantiate his own statements.

''As a minister in the then government, Mr Jaswant Singh is obliged to to divulge the information, which he claimed to have had, in the larger national interest. This, he has not done, committing a violation of at least 14 provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Criminal Proceedure Code (CrPC), which is an offence...'' Mr Yechury said, citing certain Supreme Court rulings in this regard.

He said that the BJP leader was also obliged to explain the factors which prevented him from sharing the informaiton with his own government. ''Why he has been silent during the last 11 years, besides bringing dishonour to the nation,'' the CPI(M) leader said, wanting to know whether his government was chary of ''offending the US.'' Stating Mr Singh's action was definitely a matter of privilege, Mr Yechury also sent mediapersons into peals of laughter when it quipped it was the ''first time that Parliament is involved in promoting a book at the expense of the state exchequer.'' UNI KSA vD RAI1542