New Delhi, Dec 19 (PTI) Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Thursday hit out at Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and said the chair's ruling on the INDIA bloc's notice for moving a motion of no-confidence in the Rajya Sabha chairperson "takes liberties with facts".

Ramesh was referring to certain remarks attributed to him in the ruling by Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Harivansh.

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The Congress leader also made public on X his letter to Dhankhar on December 14 in which he had contested the Rajya Sabha chairman's assertion that he had uttered a "blatant lie that had misled the nation into believing that all parties in the Rajya Sabha had expressed no-confidence in its Chairman".

Ramesh further claimed that Dhankhar had subsequently apologised to him for his allegations.

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In his letter to Dhankhar, Ramesh said, "I am writing with great pain and anguish at a most unwarranted charge you hurled at me repeatedly on Thursday December 12 in the presence of the Leader of the House and many other MPs. You began reading from a slip of paper that in the press conference of INDIA parties held on December 11, 2024, I had commenced the press conference by saying that the no-confidence motion against the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha had been submitted by 'all' parties."

"You then said that this a blatant lie uttered by me that had misled the nation into believing that all parties in the Rajya Sabha had expressed no-confidence in its Chairman," Ramesh said.

The Congress leader reminded Dhankhar that he had immediately protested and said the chairman had been wrongly briefed and that he had used the term "all parties" while he had said "INDIA parties".

"I had challenged your assertion twice but you kept insisting that you had video evidence and you kept reading from the slip of paper in front of you. I am now sending you the transcript of the press conference that includes my opening remarks.

"It had been issued on the evening of December 11 itself. I am also sending you the YouTube link," Ramesh said in his letter to Dhankhar.

"Please get it verified for authenticity by any agency you deem fit. You will then realise that I was right and you had been wrongly and mischievously briefed. I expect no apology. I only intend to present the undoctored facts before you," he said.

In his post on X along with the letter, Ramesh said the ruling given by the deputy chairperson on the notice to move a motion of no-confidence in the chairperson contains a reference to some remarks made by him in the INDIA bloc press conference held on December 12.

"This reference takes liberties with facts -- to put it mildly," Ramesh said.

In this connection, Ramesh said, he had written to the chairperson on December 14 and the chairperson told him categorically twice -- on December 17 and 18 -- that he agrees with what had been said in the letter.

"He (Dhankhar) asked me to forget what he had said and bury my letter, which will find place only in his memoirs. He, in fact, apologised to me," Ramesh said.

"I had decided to let the matter rest. But now I find the same misrepresentation in the Deputy Chairman's ruling for which there can be only one source. I am, therefore, constrained to make my letter of December 14 public," Ramesh said.

In his ruling given over the notice to move a no-confidence motion, Deputy Chairperson Harivansh said a prejudicial intent manifested through orchestration of a coordinated media campaign, including a televised press conference initiated by the leader of opposition and chief whip of the Congress on December 12.

"This began with the Indian National Congress Party Chief Whip in Council of States and its General Secretary in-charge Communications asserting "jaise ki aap sab log jaante hain ki kal.....ek avishwas prastav pesh kiya. Us par abhi tak kya karwai ho gayi, iski anya koi jankaari nahi (As all of you know...a no-confidence motion was presented. What action has been taken on it is not known)," the ruling said.

"This was an attempt to set afloat a narrative as if the authority was sitting over the notice of intention and thereby not discharging expectedly. Constitutionally after the intention of the notice to bring a resolution seeking removal of Vice President has been initiated, those taking such step had to move the resolution after 14 days, with no step called for from any quarter," it said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)