The Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi, on Tuesday, wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, taking exception to “selective” expunging portions of his speech in the House that had reference to Hindus. He demanded that it should be restored since the move was against the very tenets of Parliamentary democracy.
He also wondered in his letter to Birla why BJP MP Anurag Thakur’s speech that was full of allegations was not similarly censored.
“This selective expunction defies logic,” the Raebareli MP remarked in his written communication. During the discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Gandhi was belligerent against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP’s politics and his government, which invited commotion in the House and a strong rebuttal from the ruling dispensation.
He also made some scathing remarks, which were later expunged by the Lok Sabha secretariat.
Letter to Speaker
“I am, however, shocked to note the manner in which considerable portions of my speech have been simply taken off from the proceedings under the garb of expunction,” the LoP said.
Gandhi’s letter said the Speaker derives powers to expunge certain remarks from the House proceedings, but it’s only for those kinds of words, the nature of which have been specified in Rule 380 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.
“I am constrained to state that the portions expunged do not come under the ambit of Rule 380. What I sought to convey in the House is the ground reality and the factual position. Every member of the House, who personifies the collective voice of people whom he or she represents, has the freedom of speech as enshrined in Article 105(1) of the Constitution of India,” Gandhi wrote.
The Congress MP asserted that it is every member’s right to raise people’s concerns on the floor of the House.