LS Privileges Committee recommends letting off Ronen Sen with a reprimand
New Delhi, Nov 16: The Lok Sabha Privileges Committee today recommend that Indian Ambassador to US Ronen Sen, who was summoned by it in October over his controversial "headless chickens" remarks, be let off with a word of caution.
The Privileges Committee took the decision at a meeting here, according to media reports.
The Indian envoy to the US had appeared before the Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha on October 29, and apologised for his 'headless chickens' remark, which he made in the context of the opposition against the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.
Sen told the Committee that his remark was not aimed at Parliamentarians and it was off the record comment.
The Rajya Sabha Privileges Committee, which is also going into the issue, would meet on November 20.
On November 2, Sen appeared before the Rajya Sabha Privileges Committee on the same issue, and tendered an unqualified apology.
"It was an act of indiscretion and it should not have been done", Sen told the Rajya Sabha Privileges Committee, which is headed by Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan.
Sen's remark to a news portal, which was published on August 20, created a furore in the Parliament.
Sen in an interview to Rediff.com had said, "It has been approved here (in Washington, DC) by the President, and there (in New Delhi) it's been approved by the Indian cabinet. So why do you have all this running around like headless chicken, looking for a comment here or comment there, and these little storms in a tea-cup? "
However, he later apologised, and said those 'informal' remarks were meant to mean journalists and not the politicians.
Later, a meeting presided over by Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan took the decision to summon Sen before the Upper House's Privileges Committee.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee also referred the issue to the Committee headed by Congress MP V Kishorechandra Deo after receipt of a reply by the External Affairs Ministry. (ANI)