By PTI
NEW DELHI: After an opposition uproar over certain commonly used words being declared unparliamentary, Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote to Speaker Om Birla on Thursday, seeking the withdrawal of the same.
In his letter to the speaker, Chowdhury pointed out that the Lok Sabha Secretariat has brought out a new booklet, listing words such as “ashamed”, “abused”, “betrayed”, “corrupt”, “drama”, “hypocrisy” and “incompetent” as unparliamentary, and said it is a matter of serious parliamentary concern.
“I would like to point out that there are so many common words used in our day-to-day conversation, which have been included in the fresh list. If these words are taken out of the general vocabulary, the very essence and the impact of expression would be minimised.”
“Further, the Lok Sabha Secretariat should have mentioned the substitutes for these banned words so that it would have been easier for all of us to use the substitutes,” he said.
The Congress leader also pointed out that this “sensitive matter” should have been discussed in the Rules Committee, where all the political parties are represented.
“None of the political parties has been consulted on this sensitive matter. In view of the above, I shall request you to put this latest list of unparliamentary words in abeyance and a final list may be prepared in consultation with all political parties,” he told the speaker in his letter.
Opposition parties slammed the BJP-led Centre over the “gag order” on using certain words in Parliament, insisting indignantly that every expression used by them to describe how the saffron party is destroying the country has now been declared unparliamentary.
The clamour forced Birla to step in to soothe frayed tempers by making it clear that no word has been banned from use in Parliament but will be expunged on a contextual basis.
The members are free to express their views while maintaining the decorum of the House, the speaker said.
Parliament has not “banned” any words, it is only trying to expand “your limited vocabulary”, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said on Thursday in a jibe amid the row on a new list of ‘unparliamentary’ expressions.
Chidambaram’s remarks came hours after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla asserted that no word is banned from use in Parliament, but only expunged on the basis of context and all members are free to express their views.
The updated list of unparliamentary words include ‘jumlajeevi’, ‘ashamed’, ‘taanashah’, ‘abused’, ‘betrayed’, ‘corrupt’, ‘drama’, ‘hypocrisy’, ‘incompetent’, drawing sharp reaction from the opposition.
“Parliament has not ‘banned’ any words.
Parliament is only trying to expand your limited vocabulary,” Chidambaram said.
“Don’t be ‘ashamed’. Just say you are ‘mortified’ by the Government’s conduct. Don’t call the government ‘corrupt’. Just say they have stolen the people’s money. Don’t accuse the government of enacting a ‘drama’. Just say the Government is staging a play,” the former Union minister said.
“Let the government run to the Speaker and the Chairman and beg them to ban ‘mortified’, ‘stolen’ and ‘play’,” Chidambaram said.
In a series of tweets, the Congress leader also asked that if the government is “incompetent”, will it be right to describe it as an unparliamentary government.
“If the law is ‘abused’ by the investigating agencies, will it be correct to accuse them of unparliamentary behaviour and haul them up before the Committee on Privileges?” he said.
As a controversy erupted, Birla addressed a press conference to clarify the issue.
He said bringing out such a booklet of unparliamentary words and expressions has been a practice since 1954.
It is updated routinely including expunged words from state legislatures as well.
“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 targeted the government, accusing it of listing every word used by them to “describe how BJP was destroying India” as unparliamentary.
NEW DELHI: After an opposition uproar over certain commonly used words being declared unparliamentary, Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote to Speaker Om Birla on Thursday, seeking the withdrawal of the same.
In his letter to the speaker, Chowdhury pointed out that the Lok Sabha Secretariat has brought out a new booklet, listing words such as “ashamed”, “abused”, “betrayed”, “corrupt”, “drama”, “hypocrisy” and “incompetent” as unparliamentary, and said it is a matter of serious parliamentary concern.
“I would like to point out that there are so many common words used in our day-to-day conversation, which have been included in the fresh list. If these words are taken out of the general vocabulary, the very essence and the impact of expression would be minimised.”
“Further, the Lok Sabha Secretariat should have mentioned the substitutes for these banned words so that it would have been easier for all of us to use the substitutes,” he said.
The Congress leader also pointed out that this “sensitive matter” should have been discussed in the Rules Committee, where all the political parties are represented.
“None of the political parties has been consulted on this sensitive matter. In view of the above, I shall request you to put this latest list of unparliamentary words in abeyance and a final list may be prepared in consultation with all political parties,” he told the speaker in his letter.
Opposition parties slammed the BJP-led Centre over the “gag order” on using certain words in Parliament, insisting indignantly that every expression used by them to describe how the saffron party is destroying the country has now been declared unparliamentary.
The clamour forced Birla to step in to soothe frayed tempers by making it clear that no word has been banned from use in Parliament but will be expunged on a contextual basis.
The members are free to express their views while maintaining the decorum of the House, the speaker said.
Parliament has not “banned” any words, it is only trying to expand “your limited vocabulary”, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said on Thursday in a jibe amid the row on a new list of ‘unparliamentary’ expressions.
Chidambaram’s remarks came hours after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla asserted that no word is banned from use in Parliament, but only expunged on the basis of context and all members are free to express their views.
The updated list of unparliamentary words include ‘jumlajeevi’, ‘ashamed’, ‘taanashah’, ‘abused’, ‘betrayed’, ‘corrupt’, ‘drama’, ‘hypocrisy’, ‘incompetent’, drawing sharp reaction from the opposition.
“Parliament has not ‘banned’ any words.
Parliament is only trying to expand your limited vocabulary,” Chidambaram said.
“Don’t be ‘ashamed’. Just say you are ‘mortified’ by the Government’s conduct. Don’t call the government ‘corrupt’. Just say they have stolen the people’s money. Don’t accuse the government of enacting a ‘drama’. Just say the Government is staging a play,” the former Union minister said.
“Let the government run to the Speaker and the Chairman and beg them to ban ‘mortified’, ‘stolen’ and ‘play’,” Chidambaram said.
In a series of tweets, the Congress leader also asked that if the government is “incompetent”, will it be right to describe it as an unparliamentary government.
“If the law is ‘abused’ by the investigating agencies, will it be correct to accuse them of unparliamentary behaviour and haul them up before the Committee on Privileges?” he said.
As a controversy erupted, Birla addressed a press conference to clarify the issue.
He said bringing out such a booklet of unparliamentary words and expressions has been a practice since 1954.
It is updated routinely including expunged words from state legislatures as well.
“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 targeted the government, accusing it of listing every word used by them to “describe how BJP was destroying India” as unparliamentary.
