New Delhi: Senior Congress lawmaker Jairam Ramesh claimed Thursday that he was not consulted at all about the recent hiring of individuals connected with committees under the jurisdiction of the Rajya Secretariat, despite the fact that he chairs one of these committees.
Dhankhar had just defended his choice to have eight members of his personal staff attached with 20 committees, noting that he had done so following "multi-layered deliberations," therefore his comments came as a surprise.
Ramesh tweeted in response to Dhankhar's comments, "The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha has indicated that he consulted with the Chairmen of the various Committees before making the controversial decision to have his staff assigned to them. I'm the head of a committee and I can declare without a doubt that I had no input into this." Dhankhar's action has been called "unusual and unjustifiable" by Ramesh, the main whip of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha and the head of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests, and Climate Change.—Inputs from Agencies
