Indian opposition left 'dumb' as Modi govt blacklists more terms of criticism

THE Narendra Modi government of India has come under a fresh flak from the opposition after a new booklet issued by the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Indian Parliament) secretariat declared a number of common words of criticism such as 'ashamed', 'abused', 'betrayed', 'corrupt', 'drama', 'incompetent' and 'hypocrisy' as unparliamentary.

The booklet listed at least 40 such terms and expressions that would be expunged if used during the upcoming monsoon session of the Indian parliament from Monday (18).

The presiding officials would have the final say in expunging words and expressions.

Anarchist, dictatorial, Khalistani, bloodshed, bloody, abused, cheated, childishness, corrupt, coward, criminal, crocodile tears, disgrace, donkey, eyewash, fudge, hooliganism, hypocrisy, incompetent, mislead, lie and untrue, anarchist, lollypop, foolish, and sexual harassment are among other words and expressions that have been called unparliamentary.

The list of words called unparliamentary is not a fixed one. The booklet contains reference to words and expressions that are called unparliamentary in the parliament and legislative assemblies in 2021 and also disallowed in some of the Commonwealth nations' parliaments in 2020.

The opposition parties understandably were furious with the new move and slammed the government.

Rahul Gandhi, former president of the Indian National Congress, tweeted an image which described the word 'unparliamentary'. It described the term as “Words used in discussion and debates which correctly describes the PM’s handling of the government, now banned from being spoken.”

He also captioned the image as “New Dictionary for New India".

Another Congress leader KC Venugopal tweeted, "For the Modi government, it seems that their own reality is ‘unparliamentary’."

The Trinamool Congress, another major opposition party, slammed the move tweeting, "Interestingly the words that have received the new tag of UNPARLIAMENTARY are all adjectives used for the incumbent. Is this a preemptive step to prevent shame? Forced praises are clearly not coming @BJP4India’s way. When they begin to lose the plot; they cry foul!"

'Shashi Tharoor can be handy for opp'

Senior journalist Pallabi Ghosh had a funny take on the episode. She said the opposition would now require the assistance of Congress parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor, who is known for his extensive vocabulary, to find out new terms to target the government after the latter expanded the list of unparliamentary words.