Digvijaya Singh was in-charge for the Congress' campaign in the 2017 assembly election in Goa
Raising the issue of a pending substantive motion to discuss government formation in Goa and Manipur submitted by him a few weeks ago, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh sought to know when the Centre will find time to decide on the date of discussion on the matter.
When the House met for the day, Mr Singh said people and journalists keep asking him about what happened to the substantive motion he gave two weeks ago.
"Till today, Leader of the House (and Finance Minister) Arun Jaitley has not taken any decision," he said, adding that hardly six sittings of the Rajya Sabha are left of the ongoing Budget Session.
"Please assure that the motion will be taken before the session ends... Chairman can call the Leader of the House and me and decide on the time and date," the senior Congress leader said.
Mr Singh has been raising the matter in the House almost on a daily basis. Originally, he had moved a notice under rule 267 seeking suspension of business to discuss conduct of the Goa and Manipur governors in not inviting Congress, which emerged as the single largest party after assembly elections, to form the government. However, Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien had disallowed a discussion saying conduct of a high office like Governor can be discussed only under a substantive motion.
Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi too had stated that the government will respond to a substantive motion. He had then moved the substantive motion which was admitted by the Chairman but a time for discussion on it has not yet been allocated.
"If Leader of the House has to violate the Chairman's decision, it is not acceptable to us," Mr Singh said. To this, Mr Kurien said that they "will come back" to him.
Mr Singh said the Chair as well as the Rajya Sabha Secretariat has been kind to him, but not Mr Jaitley.
CPM lawmaker Tapan Sen supported Mr Singh and said the government is "dodging" the matter.
Mr Kurien said the Chair has accepted the substantive motion and it is pending business. "Chair will come back to you" on the time of discussion, he said.