Kharge objects after several of his words expunged

The Congress on Thursday objected to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar deleting parts of Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge’s speech from the official record. The party claimed that they did not use any unparliamentary words, and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee earlier used some of the words used by them. Dhankhar, however, ruled out a review, saying he had already decided.

As the day’s proceedings began in the Rajya Sabha, Congress MPs were questioning the propriety of expunging remarks made on Wednesday, while similar remarks made by former prime ministers Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh in the House remain part of the proceedings.

Mallikarjun Kharge said that as per the rules and procedures during the discussion on the motion of thanks to the President’s address at the joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha at the beginning of the budget session, the things said in the House cannot be expunged from the proceedings of the House.

Kharge said, “I neither used any unparliamentary word or language nor made any allegations against anyone. Still, you pick and choose some words. I will not say that you misinterpreted them, but if you had any doubts, you could have asked for clarification. Instead, six different parts of the speech were removed.” The Congress President further said, “These are the same words which were used in the House earlier as well. Vajpayee used the same words for (former prime minister) PV Narasimha Rao. It is still part of the record, you can see it.”