MP Assembly publishes booklet for MLAs on avoiding unparliamentary language; ‘Pappu’ among list of words

Team Udayavani, Aug 8, 2021, 6:34 PM IST

Bhopal: Henceforth, when an MLA stands up in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly to talk on anything, he or she can easily refer to a booklet, which mentions words, phrases or sentences that are best avoided during the proceedings of the House as such utterances can get expunged.

On the eve of the four-day long monsoon session, the state Assembly on Sunday released this 38-page booklet, which lists out a number of unparliamentary words, phrases and sentences – mostly in Hindi.

The collection carries a total of 1,161 words and sentences that were expunged from the records of the Vidhan Sabha since 1954. As per the list, the members are not supposed to use terms like “Pappu” and “Mr Bantadhar”.

BJP supporters are known to use the term ”Pappu” to ridicule Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, while “Mr Bantadhar” (spoilsport) is a term used by them for veteran Congressman and Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh. Besides that, it lists out several words like dhongi (hypocrite), nikamma (worthless), chor (thief), bhrasht (corrupt), Tanashah (dictator), gunde (goons) and phrases like jhooth bolna (to lie), vyabhichar karna (to induge in adultery). It also mentions the word ‘sasur’ (father-in-law), which was used in the House on September 9, 1954 and was expunged from the records.

The booklet specifies words and sentences that were expunged in the Assembly from 1954 to 2021, barring the period between 1990 and 2014.

It was released at the Vidhan Sabha Bhavan on Sunday by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, state Congress chief Kamal Nath, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra and Assembly Speaker Girish Gautam.

”The booklet will be given to the Assembly members on Monday, before the session begins so that they know which terms should be avoided in the House,” an Assembly official said.

Speaking on the occasion, Chouhan recalled the high standard of debates in Parliament and the state Assemblies, and said, “Many a time it happened that the person speaking in these Houses in a flow forgets about not using specific unparliamentary words.” He praised the Assembly for bringing out this book, saying that it would help the members in understanding the issue in a better way.

The chief minister also said that once a group of students, who came to visit the Vidhan Sabha, had told him after watching the proceedings of the House that they the noisy scenes made them feel as if they were standing in a fish market. Kamal Nath said that both Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha are considered as temples of democracy.

“Why such a need has arisen at all that a book on unparliamentary words and sentences was released?” he asked.

Speaker Girish Gautam said that all those words or sentences that were expunged since the beginning were included in the publication for the knowledge of the members.

“The facility of retakes in life is available to actors, and not to leaders,” he said, and advised them to speak carefully on public forums.

Gautam said that the decision to bring out this book will be justified the day the speaker does not have to expunge any word or sentences during the proceedings of the House. A P Singh, state Assembly’s principal secretary, said that the records between 1990 to 2014 were not available for some reasons and therefore, it was not included in this publication.

“It will be incorporated in the second edition of the publication whenever it will be released,” he added. Between 1993 and 2003, the Congress was in power in Madhya Pradesh, while from 2003 to 2018, the BJP ruled the state.