'Dhanda should have exercised restraint'

CHANDIGARH: Did chairman of the house committee , Harish Rai Dhanda, commit contempt of house by going public while it's report had just been taken up for discussion after it was tabled in the house?
Congress legislator Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu insisted that Dhanda addressing press conferences repeatedly while the house was yet to discuss, adopt or reject the report amounts to contempt of the house. Congress party may move a privilege motion against him, he said. However, Dhanda defended his going public saying that once the report is tabled, it's in public domain and can be commented upon.
Opinions differed on the issue whether it amounted to contempt of house as TOI talked to senior legislators. Most of them, said it didn't amount to contempt, but maintained that Dhanda should have avoided going to press, especially when the house had been adjourned following pandemonium over the issue. Being chairman of the house committee, Dhanda should have exercised restraint and not rushed to media till the report was disposed off by the house, they felt.
Questioning the propriety of Dhanda's assertions , Sidhu said he (Dhanda) has gone to the extent of saying that Amarinder Singh, who has been indicted by the panel, can lose membership of the house. "Who is he to make such preposterous comments? Only the house is competent to take decision on the report. Dhanda is nobody to make such assertions preempting the house and committing its contempt ," Sidhu said.
Dhanda said he had dwelt only on the report which has been tabled in the house and not gone beyond it nor divulged more than what is contained in the report. "The panel's proceedings and report remained privileged till these were not placed on the table of the house," he observed.
"On the contrary, Amarinder Singh has cast aspersions not only on the panel but the speaker too and committed contempt of house as the committee was unanimously constituted by the house with the leader of opposition nominating three members who participated in the proceedings throughout," he added.
Veteran BJP leader Balramji Dass Tandon, who has been a member of Punjab assembly for more than three decades, said that Dhanda should have ideally avoided it even if it didn't amount to contempt of house.
Echoing similar views, former deputy speaker Bir Devinder Singh said Dhanda should have exercised restraint and caution in public utterances since he was chairman of the panel whose report was under discussion.
Another Congress leader and former MP Jagmit Brar too expressed reservations on Dhanda addressing press conferences on the report on which the house was yet to apply its mind.
Taking an extreme stance, former speaker Ravi Inder Singh said that what Dhanda committed was patently wrong and amounted to contempt of house. "Dhanda went on to dwell on the ramifications of the report. What he was expected to speak in the house, he preferred to play to the galleries by addressing press conferences," Ravi Inder said.