Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi shot off a letter to the House Speaker, expressing shock over how his remarks were expunged, on Tuesday. The Leader of Opposition demanded that the expunged portions be restored to his speech.
In his letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, he said the context of his communication was about the remarks and portions expunged from his speech during discussion on Motion of Thanks on the President Address on Monday.
He noted that the Chair derives powers to expunge certain remarks from the proceedings of the House, but the powers also come with a stipulation that it can do so only for those "kind of words". He asserted that the nature of the powers have clearly been specified in Rule 380 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.
"I am, however, shocked to note the manner in which considerable portion of my speech have been simply taken off from the proceedings under the garb of expunction," he wrote.
The letter also enclosed relevant portions of uncorrected Debates of Lok Sabha dated 2 July.
"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 ground reality, the factual position," Rahul said in the letter.
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, the Rae Barely MP said.
He noted that it was every member's right to raise people's concerns on the floor of the House. "It is that right, and in exercise of my obligations to the people of the country, that I was exercising yesterday," he reasoned. Taking off from records my considered remarks goes against the very tenets of parliamentary democracy.
He drew the Speaker's attention to the speech of Anurag Thakur and said the latter's speech was full of allegations, and that only one word from his speech had been expunged.
"In this context I also wish to draw attention to speech of Anurag Thakur whose speech was full of allegations, however, surprisingly only one word has been expunged!" Rahul wrote in the letter.
He urged the Speaker to consider his request to restore the debate as is in the proceedings of the Lower House. "With due respect to your good self this selective expunction defies logic. I request that the remarks expunged from the proceedings be restored," the letter read.
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