IndiaPost.com - Parliament panel to summon Ronen Sen

NEW DELHI: India's envoy to the US Ronen Sen, who made the controversial "headless chickens" remark to describe those opposing the Indo-US nuclear deal, is being summoned before the Privileges Committees of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.

A decision to summon him before the Privileges Committee of the Rajya Sabha was taken at a meeting presided by the Deputy Chairman of the Upper House K Rahman Khan, Committee sources said adding that the decision was unanimous. Besides Khan, the meeting was attended by Ravi Shankar Prasad, S S Ahluwalia, Shantaram Naik and R K Dhawan.

Lok Sabha Committee sources said that a decision to summon the envoy has already been taken. The next meeting of the Rajya Sabha Privileges Committee is scheduled on November two while that of the Lok Sabha Committee is expected on October 29 and 30. The sources, however, said that no date has been fixed for the appearance of Sen before the Committees and it would be decided by mutual consultations. Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has referred the issue to the Committee sometime back after receipt of a reply by the External Affairs Ministry to which Sen had expressed unqualified apology for the remarks.

The Ministry had pleaded that in view of the unqualified apology tendered by him, the matter be closed. In view of the strong feelings of the MPs on the issue, the Speaker and also the Rajya Sabha Chairman had referred it to the Privileges Committees. The Lok Sabha Committee is headed by Congress MP V Kishorechandra Deo.

At the height of the controversy over the opposition to the nuclear deal from Left and opposition parties, Sen had used the word "headless chickens" to describe those commenting against the deal. Both the Houses had witnessed uproarious scenes for a couple of days amid demands that Sen be summoned to the bar of the House.

However, when the MPs raised the issue in Parliament attacking him, he had said that he had used the remarks to refer to journalists and not MPs but still he had offered unconditional apology to them if it had hurt their feelings. A move to decide the issue jointly by the two Privileges Committee was deliberated upon, but was not pursued for want of proper conventions and rules.