Indian Opposition Parties' Outcry Over New Unparliamentary Words Not Justified: Political Experts

This is not the first time such a list has been released - certain words and expressions are usually declared unparliamentary every year. The recent list is not a new suggestion, but merely a compilation of words already expunged from the parliament’s lower house, upper house, or state legislatures.

A list of words deemed unfit for use in the Indian parliament, which was released by the Lok Sabha Secretariat ahead of the upcoming Monsoon Session, evoked criticism from various opposition parties on Thursday.

Members of parties such as Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Shiv Sena, and others targeted the Narendra Modi government, while describing the list as “gag orders issued on MPs.”

Senior Congress parliamentarian Jairam Ramesh, who is the party's in-charge of communications and general secretary, took a jibe over the list, while TMC parliamentarian Derek O’Brien went on to say that he would use the words despite the threat of suspension.

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh Slams Federal Government

© Photo : Twitter/@Jairam_Ramesh

TMC Parliamentarian Derek O'Brien Reacts to New List of Unparliamentary Words Released by Lok Sabha Secretariat

© Photo : Twitter/@derekobrienmp

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena parliamentarian Priyanka Chaturvedi sought to know through a tweet "Should we only applaud Modi for everything".

Shiv Sena Parliamentarian Shiv Sena Takes a Jibe at Federal Government on New List of Unparliamentary Words

© Photo : Twitter/@priyankac19

However, this is not the first time that such list has been released. Some words and expressions are declared unparliamentary from time to time by the Chair in different Legislative bodies in the country as well as in Commonwealth Parliaments.

While talking to Sputnik, a section of political experts called the outcry of opposition parties bankrupt politics.

Slamming opposition parties over their hue and cry, political expert Harsh Vardhan Tripathi said: “This is very strange that instead of raising the issues of public interest the opposition is fighting for the usage of unparliamentary words in the parliament.”

“We expect that parliamentarians of the country to set a high standard in front of the people they represent. But rather than doing this they are contending that they won’t be allowed to criticize the government,” he said.

Tripathi said that there is a way to criticize the government, or anyone for that matter, and all parliamentarians as well as lawmakers should learn that.

“One more thing which they should understand that if unparliamentarian language is used while raising any issue, the whole discussion gets diluted and gets focused on the bad words used by the members of the parliament,” he explained.

Echoing the views of Tripathi, psephologist Vinod Kumar Shukla said he fails to understand why the Lok Sabha Secretariat has to come out with such a list, as parliamentarians should know "what language should be used and what should not be said."

“Since the parliamentarians failed to understand this, Lok Sabha secretariat had to act like a headmaster and release such a list. Using unparliamentary words or terms for a person sitting at a constitutional post is not acceptable anywhere across the world,” Shukla stated.

Both experts lamented that the opposition had raked up the issue of the list, as they said that such an outcry is not justified, as the list is for all political parties, not a particular party.

Some of the English words listed by the secretariat as unparliamentary include bloodshed, bloody, betrayed, ashamed, abused, cheated, childishness, corrupt, coward, criminal, anarchist, and crocodile tears.

Additionally, words like disgrace, donkey, drama, eyewash, fudge, hooliganism, hypocrisy, incompetent, mislead, lie, untrue, bobcut, lollypop, foolish, and sexual harassment would also be prohibited for use in the parliament henceforth.

Hindi words like "danga" ("riot"), "dalal" ("pimp"), "daadagiri" ("bullying behavior"), "dohra charitra" ("double standard"), "bechara" ("helpless"), "chamcha" (an obsequious person), "chamchagiri" ("flattery"), "chelas" ("lobster") , "vishwasghat" ("betrayal"), "samvedanheen" ("senseless"), "pitthu" ("sycophant"), and "behri sarkar" ("deaf government") would be considered unparliamentary and thus not be included as part of official record.

Want to know more? Check out our Koo & Telegram accounts!

Koo: https://www.kooapp.com/profile/sputniknews

Sputnik India: https://t.me/sputniknewsindia