BHOPAL: Congress’ chief whip and MP from Guna Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday moved a privilege motion against chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and district collector Guna Vijay Dutta in the Lok Sabha for not inviting him to an inauguration ceremony of the Shivpuri-Dewas four-lane highway in his constituency on Monday. Union minister for road transport Nitin Gadkari was the chief guest of the function and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan presided over the programme.

Two local Congress legislators, Mahendra Singh Sisodia and Jaivardhan Singh, boycotted the function because Scindia was not invited. Congress also shot a letter to Governor Anandiben Patel complaining about state government flouting protocol rules and humiliating the local MP.

On Wednesday, Scindia sent his notice addressed to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan , in which the Congress leader said that he was not invited in “direct contravention of the guidelines” and protocol instruction issued by the Department of Personnel and Training. Quoting the rules, Scindia pointed out that, “Member of Parliament of the area should invariably be invited to public functions organised by a government office.”

Scindia wrote, “On July 23, 2018 the state government organised a programme to inaugurate the Shivpuri-Dewas four-lane highway, for which I was not sent an invitation nor was my name mentioned on the invitations or the plaque, despite being the local Member of Parliament, in contravention to the aforementioned office memoranda on the official dealings between the administration and MPs.”

He alleged, “The administration deliberately chose not to invite me for the aforesaid for the said inauguration event and excluded my name from the invitations and plaque in a clear attempt to bring down my prestige and malign my image as a Member of Parliament. Moreover, it has now come to light that the broken pieces of another plaque with my name on it was found at the programme site, clearly indicating that the organisers purposely chose to use the plaque without my name. this is a serious affront to my dignity as a member of this House.”

Citing other instances when such behaviour against MPs made the Privilege Committee take action, Scindia said, “I appeal to the Committee to take the incident into consideration so that justice may be ensured for me. Unless we address this situation, innocent Members of the House will continue to be maligned and excluded from important events in their constituency.”

