Controversy around gifts to parliamentary committee members rages on

Gold and silver coins. Image used for representation
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Ara MP and Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) leader Sudama Prasad returned the valuable gifts he received during a tour with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways, and said such actions led to questions of public morality.

Mr. Prasad said he had received expensive gifts from Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) during the study tour of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways, conducted between October 31 and November 7, 2024. The committee had visited Bangalore, Tirupati, and Hyderabad.

The party posted the MP’s letter addressed to Chairperson of the Railway Standing Committee, C.M. Ramesh, on social networking site X. The gifts included a one-gram gold coin and a 100-gram silver block as against traditional souvenirs such as shawls, paintings, flowers, or other mementos, the MP said.

The MP said he was “pained” by the gifts he was presented with. “Late in the night, RITES and RVNL people visited my room and presented me with two bags of memorabilia. As I was tired from my day’s work, I did not immediately look into what was given to me. Later in the night, I discovered that 1 gram gold coin and 100 gram silver block were given to me by RITES and RVNL respectively. I was taken aback and raised questions about public morality and ethics on the part of Indian Railways for having given such gifts,” he said in his letter.

Mr. Prasad also requested the Chairman of the standing committee to instruct the Railways management to not arrange extravagant accommodations for standing committee meetings or official meetings. “We are public representatives and have a duty to adhere to strict public morality and ethics,” he said.

In response to a query, RITES stated that this was a commemorative token (one-gram coin) given as part of its ongoing 50-year celebrations.

Guidelines issued by the Department of Public Enterprises in 1973 say it would be salutary principle for public enterprises not to give any expensive gifts when the committees visit the undertakings or are engaged in examining their affairs.

There were also allegations of gifts presented to MPs during their visit to Bhubaneswar last month as part of the second sub-committee of Parliamentary Official Language Committee. As per the preparatory meeting convened before visit of the sub-committee to a scientific research institute in the city, the memento was decided to be either Amazon voucher of ₹10,000 or a metal coin equivalent to the amount.