Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, urging him to reverse the decision to expunge several portions of his speech during Monday's debate on the motion of thanks on the President's address.
In his first speech as the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi launched a no-holds-barred attack on the BJP, accusing the leaders of the ruling party of dividing people on communal lines.
Rahul, in his letter, questioned the speaker's decision to expunge parts of his speech, asserting that it went against the "tenets of parliamentary democracy."
Rahul opined that "selective expunction defies logic" and urged Om Birla to restore the expunged remarks.
The Congress leader also cited BJP MP Anurag Thakur's speech, saying that "it was full of allegations but, surprisingly, only one word was expunged."
Gandhi said while the Chair derives powers to expunge certain remarks from the proceedings of the House but the stipulation is only those kinds of words, the nature of which have 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 portions of my speech have been simply taken off from the proceedings under the garb of expunction," the former Congress chief said.
"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 the ground reality and the factual position. 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," Gandhi said.
He asserted that it is 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 said.
Taking off from records, my considered remarks goes against the very tenets of parliamentary democracy, Gandhi said in his letter to Birla.
"In this context, I also wish to draw attention to the speech of Shri Anurag Thakur, whose speech was full of allegations; however, surprisingly, only one word has been expunged," Gandhi said.
"With due respect to your good self, this selective expunction defies logic. I request that the remarks expunged from the proceedings be restored," he said.
Rahul Gandhi, in his speech in Lok Sabha on Monday afternoon, accused the BJP and RSS of preaching and spreading violence and hatred.
Several portions of the maiden speech of Rahul Gandhi as Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha targeting the central government over various issues, including minorities, NEET row and the Agnipath scheme, among others, have been expunged from the records of the Parliament on the orders of the Speaker.
The portions expunged include his comments on Hindus, PM Narendra Modi, and the BJP-RSS, among others. Portions of the Congress MP's remarks on industrialists Adani and Ambani were also expunged.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the Lok Sabha session on Tuesday, the Leader of Opposition remarked, "In Modi ji's world, truth can be expunged. But in reality, the truth can't be expunged. I said what I had to say; that is the truth. They can expunge as much as they want. Truth is truth."
