Rajya Sabha Chairperson Venkaiah Naidu on Friday expunged a word from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in Parliament the previous day, during the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to President Ram Nath Kovind’s address, NDTV reported.
The prime minister had accused the Opposition of spreading lies (jhooth) about the National Population Register. The word “jhooth” was expunged from the parliamentary records.
“Chairman [Venkaiah Naidu] 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,” the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said in a statement, according to The Indian Express. While Naidu routinely expunges remarks he finds unsuitable from the official records, rarely have the prime minister’s words been deleted.
The Rajya Sabha chairperson also expunged a word from the speech by Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House Ghulam Nabi Azad. Azad had in his speech used the word mislead (gumraah) with reference to the actions of the government.
In 2018, some words were dropped from Modi’s comments on Congress leader BK Hariprasad.
The Census of India website describes the NPR as “the first step towards the creation of a National Register of Citizens”. The new NPR data is scheduled to be collected from April to September along with the decennial Census exercise. However, states such as West Bengal and Kerala, and a few Congress-ruled states have issued orders stopping work on the population register amid apprehensions that it will be used to identify undocumented immigrants during the National Register of Citizens exercise.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!