‘Gag order’ cry Opp parties; members free to express views in parliamentary manner, asserts Birla
As an aggressive Opposition protested against the alleged “gag order” on usage of certain common words in Parliament, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday asserted no word has been banned from use in Parliament and members are free to express their views while maintaining the decorum of the House.
Leaders of Opposition parties, including former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, were referring to a new booklet issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, which considered use of terms like “jumlajeevi”, “baal buddhi”, “Covid spreader”, “Snoopgate” and commonly used words like “ashamed”, “abused”, “betrayed”, “corrupt”, “drama”, “hypocrisy” and “incompetent” to be henceforth considered unparliamentary in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. “No word has been banned. Members are free to express their views. No one can snatch that right, but it should be as per decorum of Parliament,” Birla told reporters even as the Opposition accused the Government of listing every word used by them to “describe how the BJP was destroying India ‘’ as unparliamentary.
Birla said people, unaware of parliamentary practices were making all kinds of comments and asserted that Legislatures were independent of the Government. “It is a routine practice continuing since 1954,” he said referring to the release of the booklet compiling lists of words and expressions deemed unparliamentary.
Birla said words chosen for expunging have been used by members of the ruling party as well as the Opposition.
The Congress and Trinamool Congress attacked the “gag order” in Parliament, saying all terms used by the Opposition to describe the Modi dispensation will now be considered “unparliamentary”.
Taking to Twitter Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, took a dig at Modi and came up with his own unique definition of the word ‘Unparliamentary’—”Words used in discussion and debates which correctly describe the PM’s handling of the Government, now banned from being spoken.”
He followed the definition of the word with an example—”Jumlajeevi Tanashah shed Crocodile Tears when his lies and incompetence were exposed” . “New Dictionary for New India” Gandhi wrote.
