NEW DELHI: Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress MPs on Thursday objected to chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar expunging words from his speech in the House a day earlier, saying he did not use any unparliamentary phrase in the Rajya Sabha.
Speaking during the debate on Motion of Thanks to the President’s address on Wednesday, Kharge led his party’s offensive against the government as he demanded a probe into the Adani Group by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), and alleged that the group was given favours by the government.
On Thursday, Kharge and Congress leaders complained that the party president’s remarks were expunged at six places .
In particular, Kharge contested the presiding officer’s decision to remove a word from the record, which he said, had been allowed to be used in the House in the past and was a part of the record.
“Former PM PV Narasimha Rao was called by this word by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It is still on the record. You should check,” the Congress president, seeking a review of the decision.
Dhankhar did not agree to the demand first raised by Congress leaders Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari.
Tiwari said the word expunged from the record had been used on multiple occasions in at least four state assemblies that he was aware of including those in Odisha and Karnataka. “The words used by the LoP are entirely parliamentary,” he said, adding that the word had been used in the past by Manmohan Singh also and was on the record.
Presiding officers have the last word in expunging words and expressions and they do not form part of the Parliament records.
Dhankhar said he examined the proceedings in the light of rules framed by the House and sweeping observations that everything had been removed from the opposition leader’s speeches was not correct. “I expect members to go through what has been expunged,” he said.
Kharge also complained that when opposition leaders including chief whip Jairam Ramesh try to raise a point, they are cut short, he said. “You say this is not right… you sit down… you should read. He (Ramesh) has been educated from Harvard University and knows Hindi, Kannada, English, which other language should he know. And knows parliamentary language and yet you keep interrupting him. This is not right.”He asked the chairman to look into the records.
When Kharge said whoever comes to his defence is interrupted by the chair, Dhankar said the ultimate defender of the LoP is the chair.
“But that is not happening,” Kharge shot back.
