Om Birla trashes Rahul Gandhi’s barbs that riled Modi & BJP

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Key portions of Rahul Gandhi’s speech in Lok Sabha expunged

By Manish Anand

New Delhi, July 2: At about 2 AM on Tuesday, the Lok Sabha Secretariat issued expunged records of the speech of the leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi. His barbs against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleging the party of spreading hate were expunged from the records of the Lok Sabha.

The whole paragraph of the speech of Gandhi in which he launched the most vicious attacks on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been expunged from the record of the Lok Sabha. Gandhi had accused the BJP of indulging in the politics of hate, while taking part in the debate on the motion of thanks to the address of President Droupadi Murmu to the joint session of parliament.

This whole paragraph of Gandhi’s speech where he dwelt on the non-violence nature of Hindus can now be not quoted. The media is prohibited from quoting from the expunged portions of speeches of the members of parliament.

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Gandhi’s remarks on Hindus who indulge in violence, hate, and falsehood had brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his feet. “This matter is very serious. To say the whole Hindu religion violent is a serious matter,” Modi told the Chair.

The House has not expunged Modi’s remarks. But the statements which invited his intervention and the subsequent clarification by Gandhi stand expunged from the records of the House.

In fact, it may be puzzling for a researcher after several years to understand why Modi made the statement. But in the age of social media when videos are the main source of news, Gandhi’s speech had been trending since yesterday afternoon.

Also, the print and the digital media mostly adhere to the norms of not quoting from the expunged portions of a speech. Users on the social media platforms may still carry on to trend the expunged portion of Gandhi’s speech.

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It may be noted that Gandhi had shot back at Modi to clarify the import of his speech. He had essentially argued that his remarks were political and aimed at the BJP.

Gandhi had spelt out his specific targets – Modi, the BJP, and the RSS — of the remarks made in the expunged portion. This whole paragraph of Gandhi’s clarification after Modi’s objection has been expunged from the records of the Lok Sabha.

Afterwards, Gandhi’s mention of key words which were part of his main punch against the BJP were also expunged where ever they had been mentioned.

Gandhi’s light-hearted banter with a couple of Union Ministers has also been expunged from the records of the House.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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