Kharge asks RS chair to restore expunged parts of his speech

PTI, Feb 7, 2024, 2:54 PM IST

New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, on Wednesday urged Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to restore the expunged parts of his speech on the Motion of Thanks on the president’s address.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Kharge said two pages from his February 2 speech were removed, leading to distortion of intent.

“I had raised certain points…they have been removed from the record,” he said, and emphasised that he had not taken anybody’s name nor violated any rules.

He cited several rules to support his argument against the removal of parts of his speech.

The Congress leader added that he also did not made any remarks on “persons in high authority” which required to be expunged.

“I register my strong objection…I would like to request you to restore the expunged part in the House proceedings,” Kharge, who has also give a written note to the chairman on the matter, said.

Dhankhar said he would look into it and give his ruling. He also there is a book on ‘unparliamentary words’.

On a suggestion from a Rajya Sabha member, the chairman also said he would be happy to constitute a committee to revisit the list of ‘unparliamentary expressions’.

“I have received a written communication from the Leader of the Opposition. I have gone through it. I will give my ruling on it,” he said.

Dhankhar said Kharge had 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 certain portion of Kharge’s remarks which were made after the Chair had announced “that nothing will go on record”.

Earlier in the day, Dhankhar said the House would meet on Saturday (February 10) in order to complete essential government business. There will be no Zero Hour and Question Hour on Saturday.

According to the original schedule, Friday would have been the last day of the ongoing Budget session.