Calling it “unethical” and a “conspiracy to silence the parliamentarians on matters of public interest”, Bhojpur CPIML MP Sudama Prasad has returned gold coins and silver blocks gifted by railway firms.

Prasad, a member of the parliamentary standing committee on railways, has also written to the committee’s chairperson and Lok Sabha member C.M. Ramesh, objecting to the tradition of “gifts” out of public money and the neglect of the common people by the railways.

“At a time when passengers are facing multiple challenges of railway safety, increasing fares, lack of facilities and humiliating treatment by the Indian Railways, such gifts given to the standing committee members is not only unethical, but borders on corruption to silence the MPs from raising issues concerning the general public,” Prasad wrote in the missive to Ramesh.

Prasad has also asked the standing committee chairperson to instruct the railways management to arrange normal accommodation instead of five-star hotels for the committee members. He asserted that as public representatives, the MPs have a duty to adhere to strict public morality and ethics.

The gifts were given to 18 members of the 31-member standing committee, who had embarked on a study tour from Bangalore to Tirupati and Hyderabad between October 31 and November 7..

Prasad told The Telegraph on Thursday: “Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) officials visited my room on the night of November 1 and gave me two bags. When I looked into them, I discovered a 1 gram gold coin given by RITES and a 100 gram silver block by RVNL. I was surprised over the morality and ethics of the railways and the squandering of the public money.”

The Bhojpur MP wrote a letter to Ramesh on November 2 and handed over the gifts to him.

Prasad told this newspaper: “Ramesh called the railway officials, who came and took away the gifts. Later on, a few railway officials came again and requested me to take the gifts, but I refused as it was against my principles.”

When the committee members, including Prasad, reached Tirupati, officials of the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) and National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) gave them 50 gram silver biscuit and two silver coins of 20 grams each, respectively.

Prasad said: “I refused to take them, despite the insistence of the concerned officials. I took bouquets, shawls, books and documents provided by the railways. They are fair enough as gifts.”