‘2 pages removed’: Mallikarjun Kharge protests RS move to expunge his remarks

NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday asked Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to restore expunged portions of his speech delivered during the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address on February 2, saying this was not the first time that chunks of his speech had been removed.

Kharge read out his letter to the chairman that referred to provisions from the rules of procedure on the conduct of business to insist that no portion of his speech attracted the rules that could have justified expunging the remark.

“This happens to me every time. This is the second or third time that my speeches have been cut. This is the letter I have written to you. I did not want to tell the Press unless I can bring it to your notice. What is this? Manusmriti is discussed so much and when I speak, it is removed,” said Kharge, the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

Kharge, who has also written to the chairman on the matter, asked how a word could be an unparliamentary term when it was there in the Constitution, a reference to Article 17 which abolishes untouchability.

Kharge said the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address was an opportunity for the members to speak on various issues. ”So I thought that it was my duty to flag the words used by a chief minister of a state. But I did not name the chief minister or name the state,” he added.

“You have removed two pages of my speech… Two pages of my speech,” Kharge said, asserting that his remark on the BJP’s target of 400 seats was also twisted in the House and the transcript of the proceedings does not register portions of his speech where he explained, ostensibly due to disruptions.

Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said he had received the communication from Kharge and will give his ruling.

Dhankhar said Kharge raised four points in his written communication. The first point relates to a word which is “unparliamentary” and was hence expunged. Points number two, three and four relate to certain portions of Kharge’s remarks that were made after the Chair had announced “that nothing will go on record”.

Dhankhar also said that there was a book on ‘unparliamentary words’ and he could constitute a committee to revisit the list of ‘unparliamentary expressions’.