Three members of Parliament have requested that Aam Aadmi Party lawmaker Bhagwant Mann be sent to rehab for "drug/alcohol de-addiction" at Parliament's expense before being allowed to attend house proceedings.
They have made their request in a letter to a nine-member committee that has been asked by the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to examine whether Mr Mann is guilty of breach of conduct and security for shooting a video inside Parliament earlier this month.
Signatories of the letter include suspended AAP MP Harinder Khalsa, BJP MP Mahesh Giri and SAD MP Prem Singh Chadumajra. The MPs asked the Speaker to allow Mann to attend House proceedings only after visiting a rehab.
Speaking to media Khalsa said, “Bhagwant Mann is like my son. I may have been suspended from AAP but not expelled yet. We are talking of his welfare and being an MP he should behave like MP. So we have suggested that his liquor addiction problem be solved forever.”
Akali Dal MP from Anandpur Sahib Chandumajra said that “if even Khalsa’s seat is changed, someone else had to sit with Mann.”
“We have just shown solidarity with Khalsa that being an old MP he has to bear horrible stench. We don’t want anyone to bear that and thus we have suggested the Speaker to get Mann treated,” he said.
The committee, headed by the BJP's Kirit Somaiya, has agreed unanimously that the AAP lawmaker is guilty and that action must be taken against him, sources said. But the panel will seek an extension from Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to submit its report as members are yet to decide on whether to recommend that the AAP lawmaker only be reprimanded or also be suspended from Parliament for some time.
The committee has also not yet deliberated upon steps that must be taken in view of Parliament's security being compromised, the sources said.
Among the three MPs who have asked the Kirit Somaiya committee to send Mr Mann, 42, to a rehabilitation centre is Harinder Khalsa, suspended by the Aam Aadmi Party and who sits beside Mr Mann in the Lok Sabha. Mr Khalsa had earlier filed a written complaint alleging that Mr Mann comes drunk to Parliament.
The MPs have copied the Speaker on their letter.
Mr Mann has been barred from attending Parliament till the committee submits its report; it had been asked to do so by Ms Mahajan by tomorrow, August 3.
