Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday said the presiding officer had the powers to expunge or restore remarks of any member as per the rules and procedures of the House.
Mr. Birla was responding to a question about different yardsticks being applied for different MPs. He was speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of a regional conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) at Udaipur in Rajasthan.
The Speaker was asked why certain remarks by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were expunged during the recent no-confidence debate in the Lok Sabha while the same words used by Union Minister Smriti Irani were retained, and why BJP member Nishikant Dubey’s allegations against a news portal were first expunged and then restored.
