Congress moves privilege motion against Amit Shah over Wayanad landslides’ claim

Answering a calling attention motion on the subject, Mr. Shah had said that the first advance warning was sent to the State on July 23 and subsequent warnings were issued on July 24, 25 and 26. Nine National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams were sent on July 23 to prepare for the impending tragedy, he had said.

But The Hindu report, published on August 2, pointed out that the weather warnings issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) carried an orange alert for Kerala for July 25 and a yellow “watch” alert for July 23, 24, 26 and 27. A yellow alert doesn’t specifically call for action. It also said that the IMD had issued an orange alert for very heavy rainfall at isolated places over Kerala and Mahe on July 29 and a red alert for July 30 was issued after the landslides hit Wayanad.

Congress general secretary (communication) Jairam Ramesh, also the party’s chief whip in Rajya Sabha, wrote to Chairman of the Upper House Jagdeep Dhankhar citing The Hindu report, which he said, clearly illustrates that the Home Minister “misled” the Rajya Sabha by his “emphatic statements on early warnings issued by the union government which have been proven to be false”. Mr. Ramesh urged that privilege proceedings should be initiated against the Home Minister.