Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Sagarika Ghose has submitted a privilege notice against external affairs minister S. Jaishankar for "misleading" the House on the treatment meted out to the "illegal migrants" from India who were sent back by the Donald Trump administration last month in shackles in a US military aircraft.
According to Ghose, Jaishankar’s statement in the Rajya Sabha on February 6 on the deportation earlier that week "contained misleading and incomplete information, violating parliamentary privilege and obstructing informed debate in the House".
She picked on his statement that "we are, of course engaging the US government to ensure that the returning deportees are not mistreated in any manner during the flight". Quoting statements made by deportees in the subsequent deportation flights, Ghose said they contradicted what the minister had said in the House.
The external affairs ministry indicated that the shackling of men has continued in the long-haul removal flights while confirming that women and children were not handcuffed or their feet chained in the US Air Force’s C17 Globemasters that landed in Amritsar on February 15 and 16. However, another issue emerged in one of the flights concerning a Sikh man being allegedly asked to remove his turban.
Ghose has sought to move the privilege notice against Jaishankar on the premise that the Rajya Sabha rules allow for this if the House is "misled by incomplete or inaccurate information".
She has contended that the minister had failed to inform the House about the deportees' allegations of mistreatment and inadequate food "despite the government's duty to monitor and verify such conditions". The presiding officer has to decide whether or not to admit the notice and refer it to the privileges committee.
Jaishankar made the statement after the first removal flight under the Trump White House landed in Amritsar on February 5.