Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday expunged from records a word used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech in the upper house after it was found to be 'unparliamentary'.
The prime minister used the word in Hindi, which may be translated as 'liar', on Thursday when he took on the opposition during his reply to the discussion on a motion thanking the President for his address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament.
“Chairman was pleased to direct expunction of a certain portion of the proceedings of Rajya Sabha dated February 6 at about 6.20 and 6.30 pm," a statement issued by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said. Modi had made the remark as he launched a strong defence of the National Population Register.
Naidu has, on several occasions, expunged remarks of parliamentarians which he found unsuitable to the dignity of the house. However, there were not many instances when a word from the prime minister's address was dropped from the records.
In 2018, Modi's comments on Congress leader B.K. Hariprasad—where he had used a wordplay on Hariprasad's initials—were expunged after they were seen as derogatory.
Modi was also not the first prime minister whose words or remarks have been dropped from records. In 2013, then prime minister Manmohan Singh had a heated debate with then leader of opposition Arun Jaitley, leading to the expunction of a few words from both their speeches.
On Friday, Naidu also expunged a word from Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad's statement.
Azad had said that the Congress was in favour of giving citizenship to persecuted migrants from Pakistan but was against framing of a law based on religion.