Mallikarjun Kharge questions RS chairman over expunging of remarks targeting PM Modi

Congress member Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday asked Rajya Sabha Speaker Jagdeep Dhankhar why parts of his speech on Wednesday were expunged from the parliamentary record, a day after similar action was taken over party leader Rahul Gandhi's remarks in the Lok Sabha.

“In my opinion, my remarks did not contain any unparliamentary or derogatory language. However, several statements were misinterpreted… If you were not sure, you could have asked differently, but instead you asked six times to delete my statements,” Kharge said. "Atal Bihari Vajpayee used the word against PV Narasimha Rao and it is still on record," Kharge added.

The Speaker is the ultimate advocate for the Leader of the Opposition, Dhankhar said in an attempt to reassure the Congress leader. The expungement of Rahul Gandhi's comments from the parliamentary record caused considerable uproar, with the opposition accusing the Center of "restricting his parliamentary speech".

Rahul Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament on Tuesday "why were my statements deleted" when he asked why the prime minister had not yet responded to the questions he raised on Tuesday. "I asked him simple questions about his relationship with billionaire Gautam Adani and did not answer them," Gandhi added.

In response to allegations of fraud against ports-to-energy conglomerate Adani, the Congress and other opposition parties launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Modi's government. The Congress strongly criticized the deletion of the remarks directed at the Prime Minister and alleged that "democracy has been cremated" in the Lok Sabha.

Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said, “By removing Rahul Gandhi's remarks on the Adani Maha mega scam linked to the Prime Minister, democracy has been cremated in the Lok Sabha. OM Shanti.” In his remarks in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi claimed that Gautam Adani's meteoric rise in fortunes happened after the BJP came to power in 2014 and he rose from 609th to second place in the global rich list.