Congress seeks removal of 'irrelevant' references to Vadra in Parliament

New Delhi, July 23: Angered by BJP raking up the Robert Vadra issue in the Lok Sabha, Congress today approached the Speaker to plead for removal of "irrelevent" references against the son-in-law of party president Sonia Gandhi.

Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge led a delegation of party leaders to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and handed over a letter to press its case.

All hell had broken loose in the House earlier in the day when BJP member Prahlad Joshi referred to a Facebook post by Vadra.

Joshi said Vadra had "demeaned" Parliamentarians and wanted the issue to be referred to the Privileges Committee and he be summoned to the House.

The fracas happened when the House was already paralysed because of the opposition's demand for resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and her Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chouhan on the Lalit Modi issue and Vyapam scam.

In the din, Kharge had demanded Joshi's remarks to be immediately expunged as Vadra was not a member of the House.

In his Facebook post, Vadra had taken a dig at the NDA leaders without naming anybody before the Monsoon session began on July 21.

"Parliament begins and so do their petty diversionary political tactics... People of India are not fooled. Regret to see India led by such so-called leaders !!," he said.

Parliament sources said in the evening that the Speaker has so far not taken any view on the BJP's demand for referring the issue to the Privileges Committee.

PTI