New Delhi: Opposition parties have slammed the Lok Sabha secretariat for introducing a new list of unparliamentary words just ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament that begins on July 18. The list of around 250 words both in Hindi and English includes words like 'corrupt', 'ashamed', 'cheated', 'mislead', 'lie', 'Jumlajeevi', and 'tanashahi'.
Talking to ETV Bharat, CPI General Secretary D Raja slammed the government for its latest move and said BJP-RSS were making Parliament "increasingly redundant". "It shows that the government is panicking to confront the opposition because there are a number of issues which are of public and national importance. The government wants to throttle the voice of the opposition. After all, there is already a procedure in parliament for words and how one can speak, whether parliamentary or unparliamentary, derogatory or non-derogatory, it is there," Raja said.
He said that the government had gone ahead with the "unilateral" move to ban several words. "If the government is corrupt, one should say the government is corrupt but now they say you can not use this word 'corrupt'" he said. Raja said the government was not willing to hear any kind of criticism. "If the government fails to fulfill a promise, we can say the government has betrayed the people by not implementing its promise but now they say 'betrayal' should not be used. What is all this happening?" he said.
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"BJP is afraid of parliament, the idea of which is to remain vibrant because parliament is the Supreme institution in our Democracy. Dr. Ambedkar and a galaxy of leaders envisioned parliament to be a vibrant place. Now BJP-RSS thinks parliament should not be like that. Parliament should be sidelined, bypassed and undermined. BJP is trying to make parliament redundant," he said.
"When the government takes such steps, they are making parliament increasingly redundant. When parliament is redundant, where is democracy? The opposition's role will be finished. They are undermining parliamentary practices. This is not the way to dictate opposition parties on which words they should use or not use," said Raja.
Meanwhile, Kisan Sabha leader and CPM politburo member Hannan Mollah also slammed the move and said that if the government can't be criticised "then where is democracy?" "The Parliamentary and unparliamentary words are already there. But in the present situation, the government is committing a series of crimes. If you can't criticise the government, then where is democracy. In a democratic system of government people should have the right to criticise the government," said Mollah.
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Coming down heavily against the government, Mollah further said that the words listed in the new booklet are not parliamentary, "In fact such words (unparliamentary) are already there in the list." Mollah said that it was part of the BJP's "conspiracy to suppress the dissenting voice". "Outside the Parliament, they (government) have already taken action by arresting people, by ED raids, and jailing those who are vocal and speak against the government. Now they are bringing the same policy inside the Parliament," said Mollah.
