PM’s remarks against Hariprasad expunged by RS chairman

In an embarrassment to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday expunged remarks made by him against Congress MP B K Hariprasad, the Opposition joint candidate for deputy chairman elections, finding it to be “objectionable”.

The rare expunging of remarks by the prime minister came after RJD MP Manoj K Jha raised the issue on Thursday after which Naidu said he will go through the records to see if there was something objectionable. Jha said the remarks were “derogatory in direction and intent”.

Hariprasad had lost to JD(U)’s Harivansh. While congratulating the winner in the House, Modi played on the initials of Hariprasad which were found to be objectionable by the Opposition MPs. Naidu expunged the remark from the records, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said in a statement.

Hariprasad tweeted on Friday evening, “PM refers to Prime Minister of this great nation. PM also refers to a panchayat member, from where political activists begin their political career. Even a panchayat member would be ashamed of the language PM Modi used against me personally!”

“I think it becomes a massive shame for this country. The Prime Minister himself uses unparliamentary expressions. I think Modi is a very fine speaker and rhetorician. He prides himself on being able to find play of words on everything and I think that should be applauded. We need some creativity of expression, but at the same time, there are some limits that must not be crossed and very sadly it is clear that these limits have been crossed,” Congress Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor was quoted by a TV channel as saying.

In 2013, certain remarks by the then prime minister Manmohan Singh and the then Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley during a heated debate were expunged.