Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla clarifies no words banned, but must maintain House decorum

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday clarified that there has not been any ban on words used in the Parliament and members are free to express their opinion while maintaining the decorum of the House.

Birla's remarks came amid controversy over the publication of a booklet by the Lok Sabha Secretariat that included words that were deemed to be unparliamentary such as 'ashamed', 'jumlajeevi', 'taanashah', 'abused', 'betrayed', 'corrupt', 'drama', 'hypocrisy' and 'incompetent'.

"No word has been banned. Members are free to express their views. No one can snatch that right, but it should be as per decorum of Parliament," Birla told reporters even as the Opposition targeted the government, accusing it of listing every word used by them to "describe how BJP was destroying India" as unparliamentary.

The speaker said that people who are ignorant of parliamentary systems say all kinds of opinions and added that legislatures are independent of the government.

Referring to the booklet that was released which had a compilation of the so-called unparliamentary words, he said, "It is a routine practice continuing since 1959."

Birla said that both the ruling as well as the Opposition parties have used the words chosen for expunging.

With PTI inputs