Modi Parliament
IANS

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has ordered expunging of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks made on Congress leader BK Hariprasad in the upper House on Thursday.

The Chair regularly expunges remarks/ words from the record that are found to be "unparliamentary".

However, it is very unusual when a Prime Minister's remarks are expunged from the record.

PM Modi had made the remarks while congratulating NDA candidate Harivansh Narayan Singh for having been elected to the post of Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha by defeating opposition-supported candidate BK Hariprasad of the Congress.

Speaking in Hindi, PM Modi had resorted to some wordplay on Hariprasad's first name initials "BK."

His speech was seen as derogatory and infuriated Congress members. Just after that, the PM started praising Hariprasad for his efforts to protect the dignity of democracy in a lost battle.

When BK Hariprasad was asked about the PM's comment, he said, "The Prime Minister belittled the dignity of the chair and brought down the dignity of the House."

Following the election, Harivansh said that he would always uphold the dignity of the Upper House and try to resolve the differences with the Centre through constructive debate, consensus and guidance.

"Treading on rules and procedures framed by our Constitution makers, we can lead the country to greatness... there would be differences in debates, there would be different opinions... we can find a way," he said.

"I think it becomes a massive shame for this country. The PM himself uses unparliamentary expressions in any house of the Parliament," Congress leader Shashi Tharoor added.

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