Rajya Sabha Secretariat denies AAP MP Raghav Chadha's request to speak in House: Report

NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha Secretariat on Thursday refused Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha’s request to speak on the Jan Vishwas Amendment Bill, citing that no time had been allocated to him by the party, sources told news agency ANI.The move comes after AAP sent an official letter to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat stating that Ashok Kumar Mittal would be the party’s new deputy leader in the Upper House, replacing Chadha. Mittal, a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, was elected in April 2022. Since then, he has been a member of several parliamentary committees, including the Committee on Defence and the Committee on Finance. In February 2026, he became a member of the India-USA Parliamentary Friendship Group.He was also part of an all-party delegation, led by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Kanimozhi, which visited Russia, Latvia, Slovenia, Greece, and Spain after the Pahalgam terror attack last year.Chadha, also elected to the Rajya Sabha in April 2022, has raised multiple public issues in Parliament. Last month, he highlighted the practice of "sarpanch pati" or "panchayat pati," where women elected to reserved Panchayat seats often serve as figureheads while real power is exercised by male relatives. He urged the government to ensure that women representatives in local bodies can exercise genuine authority as intended under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment.He has also raised the issue of menstrual hygiene, stating: “It is a matter of health, education and equality, which affects over 35 crore women and girls in India. If a girl misses school because there are no sanitary pads, water, and privacy, it is not her personal problem but a collective failure. Society has turned a biological fact into a social taboo.”Earlier this year, amid the gig workers’ agitation, Chadha spent a day as a delivery partner to understand firsthand the pressures and challenges associated with the job.