Congress fumes as Kharge’s remarks on Modi-Adani expunged from parliament records

New Delhi, Feb 9: Eight references made by Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and linking him with an industrialist facing allegations among others were expunged from Parliament records, prompting Congress on Thursday to allege censorship.

The action on Kharge’s remarks made during the debate on Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address came on Wednesday night, a day after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla ordered removing 18 references made by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on the same lines.

The removal of Kharge’s remarks from records were raised by Congress Chief Whip Jairam Ramesh in Rajya Sabha and were joined by senior MPs Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari as well as Kharge.

Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said he took the decisions as per the rules of the House and it was wrong to make sweeping statements that “everything was removed”. 

Ramesh countered it saying the essence of the speech was expunged, while Wasnik argued that they were following Dhankhar’s advice to raise it during the debate while rejecting notices for immediate debate on Adani issue.

Intervening in the matter, Kharge said he had not used any unparliamentary expressions or levelled any allegation but his remarks were expunged. “If you (Chairman) had any doubts, I would have clarified but my remarks were expunged,” he said.

Kharge went on to refer to an expression that he used to suggest that Prime Minister Narendra Modi remained silent when his party leaders indulged in hate speech and was expunged, but Dhankhar asked him not to use it.

However, Kharge said, the same expression was used by late Atal Bihari Vajpayee against the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and that is still in the Parliament records.

Ramesh said it was wrong to expunge Kharge’s remarks and the Chairman should have expunged his own remarks (made on the Leader of Opposition’s speech).

Wasnik said that they were following the Chairman’s advice as he had suggested that the MPs could raise the Adani Group issue during the debate while rejecting notices to suspend the business of the House to discuss the contentious matter. 

“But you have expunged the remarks of the Leader of the Opposition instead. Tell us what were the unparliamentary words he used?” he asked. Tiwari too echoed the views.

Talking to reporters, Ramesh said the action amounted to censorship and the country is witnessing an “undeclared emergency”.  He added, “Legitimate questions raised by Rahul Gandhi, Kharge and Digvijaya Singh have been expunged.”