NDA raises MP Subba's nationality

The opposition National Democratic Alliance on Wednesday made a vain bid to raise the issue of the citizenship of M K Subba, Lok Sabha MP from Tezpur, in the Rajya Sabha.

The Chair firmly ruled that there cannot be any discussions in the House without any notice concerning a member of the other House.

Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool Cong), soon after Question Hour, raised the matter after the media dug up the evidence linking the ruling party member's citizenship to Nepal, and said it had become a joke that a fugitive from the Himalyan nation had become a Member of Parliament in the country.

The BJP members' bid to join the issue was disallowed by Deputy Chairman K Rehman Khan, who firmly ruled that matter cannot be discussed in the House without notice.

''You submit a notice, the Chair will examine it. You have to follow rules,'' Mr Khan advised the BJP MPs.

The Bharatiya Janata Party also urged Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to take cognisance of the emerging evidence concerning Subba and his Nepal citizenship and refer the issue to Ethics or Privileges Committee of the House.

Recalling the aftermath of a sting operation in the cash for query scam in which the Speaker had referred the issue to the Ethics Committee, he said the evidence emerging against Subba should be referred to Ethics or Privileges Committee.

The ongoing case before the Supreme Court or the CBI inquiry into Subba's nationality would not stand in the way of Parliament taking a decision, he said.