Speaker of the House of Representatives Devraj Ghimire has directed to "expunge from the record" the statements of the three lawmakers within two weeks.




According to parliamentary affairs experts, the removal of utterances from parliamentary records by prime ministers, ministers, or members is extremely rare in parliamentary practice.



However, beginning May 15, the Speaker has asked that parts of the statements spoken by legislators Shishir Khanal, Lekhnath Dahal, and Sunil Sharma be removed from the legislative records.



Ekram Giri, spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat, stated that the Speaker directs the Speaker to erase any term or statement made by parliamentarians in the House that is "prejudicial to parliamentary decorum."


"Expressions that are hurtful to parliamentary dignity, humiliate others, are socially indigestible, and provide double or degraded meaning depending on the context are removed from parliamentary records," Giri added.



In what case is it removed from the record?

 According to Mukunda Sharma, a former secretary at the Parliament Secretariat, it is standard procedure for other politicians to alert the Speaker about a lawmaker's comments or actions in the House and demand that he be removed from the records.


"If anyone requests that their name be removed from the record, the Speaker removes it." "The House should be informed clearly about which words or sentences were deleted after deletion," sharma argues.


"It is the Speaker's prerogative not to remove the removal." However, the Speaker's decision had to be communicated to the House. Because the House and the wider public needed to understand what an unparliamentary term is,



The House of Representatives Rules specify the procedures that legislators must follow when speaking in parliament.



It addresses the following concerns: "Speaker's conduct should not be criticized except in the discussion of the motion that the Speaker has not behaved in accordance with the office, and issues prohibited by the Constitution should not be discussed in the debate."






"indecent, obscene, derogatory, objectionable words or in a manner contrary to public decency or morality, and should not speak or use unparliamentary words in a manner that offends or otherwise affects any person, race, religion, language, or gender," the lawmakers' rules state.


Sharma, a former secretary, blamed the increasing number of phrases banned from parliamentary practice on a lack of training of legislators by the parliament secretariat and parties on parliamentary decorum and norms.





How the 'unparliamentary word' is removed


According to Ram Prasad Gaire, who has worked in the Parliament Secretariat's details division for six years, along with audio and video records of MPs' utterances in the House,'verbratim' i.e. 'literal' records are also retained.


"Such words or expressions are also removed from computer audio and video records, and they are not dropped in letters," Gaire explained.


According to him, some of the utterances are vital to be preserved in history, and even the words requested to be erased have been removed.


KP Oli's statement that has not gone away

Four years ago, while answering questions about the government's policies and initiatives, then-Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli stated that he would not respond to "anger, frustration, and low-level statements."


Three days after the opposition continued to object, then-Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara asked the secretariat to erase oli's statements from the record because they were "not in line with parliamentary decorum."



Giri, a spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat, stated that Oli's comment has been recorded and that its'footnote' has been ordered to be removed from the speaker.


"Despite being asked to remove it, there was some confusion about which word was unparliamentary." "That is why the expression was marked and finally explained while keeping the record," he explained.


Three statements asked to be removed from parliament records

Prachanda's jibe at bringing buffaloes from India

On Monday, the Prime Minister updated the House on his recent trip to India.

During the Prime Minister's visit to India, it was agreed that Nepal will receive 15 advanced Murrah breed rhinos.

The prime minister's visit produced no significant results, and some criticized him, saying he had "come riding a buffalo."


Shishir Khanal of the Rastriya Swatantra Party also mentioned the buffalo while questioning the Prime Minister in the House of Representatives.

"We wanted him to fly into Pokhara International Airport, which he had recently inaugurated." Sadly, there have been allegations of buffalo riding," Khanal remarked.


The Prime Minister had previously complained about this at his announcement of his visit to India.



"It's no longer about buffaloes." An arrangement was established seven years ago to bring murrah buffaloes. "It's only now," stated the Prime Minister.

"People have taken me away with buffaloes."

However, CPN (Maoist Centre) MP Hitraj Pandey objected to the opposition lawmakers' ridicule of the prime minister. After members from both the ruling and opposition parties rose from their seats, there was a heated debate in parliament.

"I direct the secretariat to remove from the record the phrase 'he came riding a buffalo,'" the Speaker said in response to the governing party legislators' stand, which included Pandey.


Opposition lawmakers, who were angry with the Speaker's directive, created a ruckus and protested.


They also asked that the prime minister remove the words "offered buffaloes" from his speech.


Rabi Lamichhane, President of the Rastriya Swatantra Party, accused the ruling party of being unable to comprehend humour.


"Nothing happens to the Prime Minister as he stands on the rostrum." "For example, if we want to remove our honorable, that is fine," he remarked.


"We have no objection to the removal of the prime minister's words because the prime minister himself said them."


The Speaker stated unequivocally that the phrase "Prime Minister riding a buffalo" should be removed from the record "because it was not found appropriate to keep it in the records of the Parliament."


Following demands from the opposition lawmakers, the Speaker issued another direction to "remove from the record the words that whoever had spoken had come riding a buffalo".



Oli government's insinuations over Pashupatinath's jalhari


Previously, on May 14, CPN (Maoist Centre) MP Lekhnath Dahal removed from the parliament records the allegation of corruption leveled against former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.


"Corruption worth Rs 2 billion in medical supplies, brass-based corruption in the name of wearing gold even while wearing the jalhari of Pashupatinath," he claimed of the Oli-led government.


After UML legislators objected to Dahal's statement, the Speaker ordered that it be removed from the parliamentary record.


Later, the Prime Minister was also required to clarify the situation.


Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' had stated in the House that linking the leader of the main opposition party to the work of the Pashupati Area Development Trust was inappropriate.


Deputy Speaker asked questions linking him to the party


Sunil Sharma, a Nepali Congress lawmaker, also had his remark erased from the House records.


On May 14, Sharma questioned Deputy Speaker Indira Rana, who was overseeing the meeting while sitting in the Speaker's chair, and linked her party to her party.


"Where have all your friends gone?" Will you take the pay allowance and skip the meeting?" sharma had informed Rana that members from the Rastriya Swatantra Party were not present in the House.


The following day, RASP MP Hari Dhakal sought that sharma's name be removed from the records, claiming that the statement had thrown doubt on the deputy speaker.


Sharma's statement was ordered to be erased from the record in response to Dhakal's request.


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