Kharge writes to VP Dhankhar over removal of remarks on PM, Adani from Parliament records

Protesting against expunction of certain remarks from his speech, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday shot off a letter to Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, saying that it will be an “inversion of the system of governance” if Opposition MPs are to investigate, gather evidence and raise issues in Parliament.

Kharge's letter came a day after the Chairman expunged his remarks linking Prime Minister Narendra Modi with controversial industrialist Gautam Adani and his charge that the PM remains silent on hate speech by BJP leaders, among others.

Separately, Congress Leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla protesting against removal of a "major portion" of Rahul Gandhi's speech in such a way that the whole speech becomes "unintelligible". He demanded that the speech be published in totality, as it serves "great public purpose".

Referring to Dhankhar’s direction to authenticate the charges levelled with documents, Kharge said the Parliament is a platform to fix the accountability of the Executive and any criticism of policies and decisions of the government and their fallout cannot be construed as allegations against any MP.

He said any criticism of the government “can never be equated with the dignity of the Council” and it was “difficult to fathom that in a Parliamentary democracy, no public interest is served by criticism of policies and their consequences”.

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Arguing that there was no personal charge in any of his remarks, he said an MP is only required to authenticate any document that he lays on the Table of the House and that there is no convention of provision of authentication of points made in a speech in Parliament.

Any direction or rule of the House cannot subvert the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech mandated for MP through Article 105.

“It would be an inversion of the system of governance, if the Opposition members are expected to carry out complete investigation, gather evidence and then raise the matter on the floor of the House,” he said.

The arrangement, he said, is that the Opposition MP raises issues on the basis of inputs from media, reports in public domain or even confidential personal information, he said.

“The member, after due diligence, draws the attention of the House to such issues and it is incumbent upon the government to investigate the matter and take appropriate action in consonance with the law of the land,” he said.