Opposition Moves Privilege Motion Against Piyush Goyal, Walks Out Of Parliament Over 'Traitor' Remark

Amid heated arguments in the Parliament on Tuesday, opposition parties moved a privilege motion against the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, Piyush Goyal, for using unparliamentary language against them as he called them “traitors” as a storm raged on in the Parliament on the debate around ‘NewsClick’ media portal’s alleged China funding. 

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh took to X, formerly Twitter, to announce the privilege motion against Goyal. "Nothing less than an apology from him on the floor of the House, when it is in order, will do," the Congress leader, who is a signatory to the privilege notice, said. Among other parties whose leaders gave the notice included the TMC, AAP, RJD, DMK, RJD, JDU, NCP and the Left parties.

Rajya Sabha today took up the issue of media portal 'NewsClick' receiving funding from China-linked firms allegedly to spread Chinese propaganda after a New York Times report surfaced claiming the same. Goyal questioned the relationship between the opposition parties and the news portal 'NewsClick'.

Opposition leaders also raised an uproar in the House and demanded an apology from Goyal. The INDIA bloc staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha over Goyal’s remarks.

"The continued refusal of the Leader of the House Piyush Goyal to apologise for the highly objectionable and completely unacceptable remarks he made against leaders of the INDIA parties," Ramesh said in another X post after the opposition parties walked out of the House.

Speaking to reporters outside the Parliament, Goyal said that the NYT report “exposed” the alliance of “arrogant leaders” and their alleged relation with the Communist Party of  China. 

“Today MP Sudhanshu Trivedi, raised a serious issue related to the nation’s security in the Parliament. A serious issue has been highlighted by an American newspaper that Delhi CM vouched for as the biggest newspaper in the world. This newspaper has exposed the alliance of these arrogant leaders, their relation can be traced to the Communist Party of China…” 

Goyal, however, told the House that he takes back any words which may not be parliamentary and urged the chair to remove the same from the records. Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankar said he will go through the records and if there is anything unparliamentary, that cannot remain as part of the records of the House.