New Delhi: Leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has written to the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against portions of speech during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address on July 1 that have since been expunged from parliament records.
In his maiden speech as LoP in the Lok Sabha Gandhi took on the BJP for systematically deflecting attention from pertinent issues like inflation, job crisis and growing inequality by inducing anxiety among people on emotive issues of faith.
Referring to issues like the paper leaks in competitive exams like NEET, the rollout of the Agniveer scheme, hate against Muslims and other minorities, and farmers’ demands for a legal guarantee for MSP, Gandhi said that the Modi government has overseen a “systematic attack on the constitution, on the idea of India, and anybody who opposed” BJP’s patronisation of “hate, untruth and violence”.
Also read: In Maiden Speech as LoP, Rahul Gandhi Tears into Modi Govt on Hate Politics, Price Rise and NEET
In his letter, Gandhi requested that the expunged portions of his speech be restored and said that he is “shocked to note the manner in which considerable portions” of his speech have been “simply taken off from the proceedings under the garb of expunction”.
“I am constrained to say that the expunged portions do not come under the ambit of Rule 380. What I sought to convey in the House is the ground reality, the factual position. Every member of the House who personifies the collective voice of the people he or she represents has the freedom of speech as enshrined in Article 105(1) of the Constitution of India. It is every member’s right to raise people’s concerns on the floor of the House,” he wrote.
Gandhi said that taking off portions of his speech “goes against the very tenets of parliamentary democracy.”
Referring to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Anurag Thakur’s speech of which only one word was expunged, Gandhi said that this “selective expunction defies logic”.
Parliament records show that the parts of his speech that have been expunged include his remarks where he alleged that hatred, untruths and violence are being spread by those who call themselves Hindus referring to the BJP.
“Those who call themselves Hindu 24*7 spread hatred, violence, and untruths. You are not Hindus. Hindu dharma clearly states that you must stand with the truth and not be scared of the truth. Nonviolence is our symbol. Abhaymudra,” said Gandhi, which has now been expunged from the records.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi then stood up and intervened and said “(what the LoP) said was a very serious subject. Labelling the whole Hindu society as violent is an extremely serious matter.”
Modi’s intervention has been retained but Gandhi’s response has been expunged.
Gandhi had then responded and said: “No no, Narendra Modi is not the whole Hindu community, BJP is not the whole Hindu community, RSS is not the whole Hindu community. Ye theka nahi hai BJP ka,” said Gandhi, which has been expunged.
Other remarks in his speech that have been removed include portions where he alleged that those who had been displaced to build the Ram Temple in Ayodhya had not been invited to the inauguration ceremony, compensations not being provided under the Agniveer scheme to those who lose their lives in the line of duty, as well as references to industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani.
Speaking to reporters outside parliament on Tuesday, Gandhi said that expunging portions of his speech won’t change the truth.
“The truth can be expunged in Modiji’s world. But in reality, the truth cannot be exposed. I have said what I had. It is the truth. They can expunge as much as they want, the truth will remain the truth,” he said.
