Scindia moves privilege motion against Chouhan for not inviting him to highway inauguration

The chief whip of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindia, moved a privilege motion against Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the state government, and the district collector of Guna, for not inviting him to the inauguration ceremony of the Shivpuri-Dewas four-lane highway in his constituency on July 23 “in direct contravention to guidelines”.

In a notice to Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan, posted on Twitter, Scindia said: “As per the extant protocol instructions issued by the department of personnel and training, ministry of personnel, PG & Pensions, members of parliament of the area should invariably be invited to public functions organised by a government office.”

He added that Chouhan and the district and state administration excluded his name from the invitation cards and the plaque to malign his reputation and image as a Member of Parliament.

“It has now come to light that the broken pieces of another plaque with my name on it was found at the programme site... when the local MLA Mahendra Singh Sisodiya raised this issue at the event he was physically assaulted and thrown off the stage,” he wrote, asking for necessary steps to ensure that a new plaque replaces the one unveiled.

Guna collector, B Vijay Dutta, claimed that he spoke to Scindia’s staff, and that they had said he would not be able to attend the programme. State BJP spokesperson Rajnees Agrawal said the Guna district administration had explained the circumstances.