The trail of “pads of currency notes” allegedly recovered from the seat allotted to Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha remains “under investigation” for a week. Meanwhile, the wait for a lone pen to claim its right continues in the ‘Table Office’, the section of Parliament where everything lost – and almost everything found – lands in the House. Time is an exception.
“Many members have quietly returned their belongings. Currently there are only unclaimed pens in the table office. All the rest have been returned,” says a security member of the parliament, “they have been fighting with them since the last session.
The case of the recovered cash, announced by Rajya Sabha Speaker Jagdeep Dhankhar himself in the House and completely denied by Singhvi, is unusual not just in favor.
Normally, sources say, when an article is found inside Parliament, it is easily traced, and the MP concerned is “immediately informed”. Even if MPs are in Parliament House, they return there. If not, it reaches the Table Office, the administrative arm of Parliament that looks after the running of the House, from where MPs can collect their belongings.
Even in the old parliament, such items reached the small 10×10 feet parliament security office on the first floor.
All such duties are now handled by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which took over from the Parliament Security Service after the December 2023 incident, when three visitors smuggled smoke canisters into the Lok Sabha and burst them in the House. .
Over the years, many items have passed through their hands, say Parliament security officials – mostly missing wedding cards, invitation cards, letters addressed to ministers, parliamentary debate papers, party floor strategy cheats, keys, phones, laptops and jewellery. . Finding cash is also common, up to a few thousand rupees; “Wad of currency”, traced or untraced, first.
“The protocol is so strict that even a Rs 2 coin left on the desk is returned to the rightful owner,” said an official.
Behind many recoveries, lie stories. How old employees of the Parliament Security Service once found an unlocked laptop in the Rajya Sabha and realized that it belonged to the then BJP MP Arun Shourie. UPA was in power at that time.
“We found him writing a book. We informed Shourie Ji’s PA, who said that the member would come the next day. But Shourie ji arrived that night. The staff told him that the office was closed but he requested to open it and hand over the laptop as it contained all the data,” said an official.
As per security protocol, officials go through assets to determine ownership – among other things – until they are sealed.
So they are now well-known given the many times they have stumbled upon things like Samajwadi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan’s candy box. “She often carries this box as she moves around the House, sharing sweets with other MPs. She has left it behind several times and it has been returned to her the next day,” said an official.
Letters seized in the House mostly relate to requests regarding transfers and postings of officials, while chits are those used by parties to inform MPs about changes in floor strategy in the middle of a meeting. “Today, we find fewer wedding cards as MPs now receive them in digital form on their phones,” says the official.
The items came to light during “anti-vandal checks” carried out in the two houses by Parliament’s security – previously this was done twice a day, before the House sits and after it adjourns for the day. Since the CISF took over, multiple anti-sabotage checks have been common, with adjournment at any time. According to Dhankhar, currency was found on Singhvi’s chair during one such sweep of the Rajya Sabha.
There are examples of MPs contacting themselves Parliament Security Office Or the table office looking for something they can’t find.
An official admits it can be awkward “when claims are made on articles we don’t own”. “Then we have to look at the entire CCTV footage and conduct a proper investigation. But in most of these cases, members come back saying they made a mistake and found the missing item at home.
The CISF officer says that if security checks find articles that can be traced back to the owners, they tag them with names, and hand them over to the desk office. “Phones are easy to return, jewelery takes time. Recently a member lost her earring. She showed us another similar earring she had. It was returned to her.”
But, whether detected or not, security officials do not recall any instance of an announcement in the House about a found article as Dhankhar did last Friday.
Of all the stories, one appeals to old-timers the most – when they found a mobile phone with a camera. “It belonged to (National Conference President) Farooq Abdullah Sahab. Those were the days when even incoming calls were charged and very few people had mobile phones, let alone phones with cameras. Most of the staff that day were discussing on the phone. The next day, it was returned to the MP.”