Congress leader Jairam Ramesh's live tweeting of the proceedings in Sunday's all-party meeting drew the ire of BJP and its ally JD(U). The controversy came as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju stressed on the need to adhere to parliamentary traditions.
During the meeting, presided by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Ramesh tweeted about what different parties raised. He wrote, "The JD(U) leader demanded special category status for Bihar while the YSRCP leader demanded it for Andhra Pradesh. Incidentally the TDP leader kept mum on the matter." It was the first public comment on the discussion inside the meeting.
JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha also took an indirect dig at Ramesh for live updates and underlined that parliamentary sanctity needs to be maintained. "I wish a certain senior Congress leader had respected the proceedings," he said.
Rijiju said much the same thing and termed the situation unfortunate, while asking everyone to maintain parliamentary propriety and protocol.
Not one to stay quiet, the head of the IT department for BJP, Amit Malviya, leaped into the fight, stating that the Congress really should reconsider its choice of representative for the following set of meetings. "There are some norms laid out for these meetings", he said, adding that Ramesh's behaviour was a deviation from those norms.
Ramesh's posts, some of which referred to demands made by regional parties like JD(U) and TDP, another BJP ally, lent a political hue to the proceedings. He continued to tweet about the meeting even as it progressed.
An Opposition camp leader said that though unconventional, such disclosures were not unprecedented as attendees often brief the media on certain issues after such meetings in defence of Ramesh.
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