NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan on Friday rejected a request by Leader of the Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to restore expunged portions of his speech, stating that decisions of the Chair cannot be questioned and deleted remarks cannot be made public.
Kharge raised the issue after Zero Hour, referring to his February 4 speech during the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address. He said several substantive points on social justice and parliamentary functioning were removed from the official transcript.
“I found that a large portion of my speech had been expunged or deleted without any proper justification,” Kharge said. He claimed the unrecorded portions contained factual comments on parliamentary proceedings during the current government’s tenure, as well as criticism of certain policies of the Prime Minister. He said it was his responsibility as LoP to raise such matters.
Radhakrishnan said, “Whatever has been expunged cannot be stated outside.” He added that questioning the Chair’s decision was not permissible.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman intervened, citing Rule 261, which empowers the Chairman to expunge words deemed defamatory, indecent or unparliamentary. “The Chair deserves respect,” she said.
Kharge replied that Rule 261 applies only in limited circumstances. “What I said was clearly relevant,” he said, warning, “I’ll be forced to share the unrecorded versions with the public”.