"Hypocrisy ki bhi seema hoti hai (there is a limit to hypocrisy)," Prime Minister Narendra Modi once said at a rally. The dialogue became fodder for meme lords, critics of the BJP, and the Opposition to take a dig at the central government. The word 'hypocrisy' has now been declared unparliamentary as per the new Lok Sabha Secretariat ahead of the monsoon session of the Lok Sabha starting July 18.
Neither the government nor the opposition will be able to use the word. Similarly, the members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will have to find alternatives to words like abuse, corrupt, sexual harassment, drama, and ashamed to make statements in the House.
A slew of Hindi and English words and expressions have been banned from both houses of the Parliament. Ashamed, corrupt, drama, abused, sexual harassment, dictatorial, etc are on the new list of banned words.
Tanashah, Tanashahi, (meaning dictator and dictatorship, respectively) are two Hindi words under the new list of Unparilamentary words. The words have often been used by the Opposition and left-leaning activists to take potshots at the current BJP-led central government. Like 'tanashah' and 'tanashahi', 'jumlajeevi' has also been put on the new list. The expression 'Jumlajeevi' (survivors of sentences) was used by the Opposition to hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for calling farm law protestors as 'andolan jeevi (survivors of protest).
"A new "breed" of agitators called "andolanjeevi" has emerged in the country, who cannot live without an agitation and the nation should guard against them," he had said in Lok Sabha in February 2021 when the protests against the farm laws were at a high.
The Opposition on Thursday slammed the Centre for the move and said the ban on words was 'uncalled for'.
"What is the point of parliament if you can't be creative in your criticism? Jumlajeevi ko jumlajeevi nahi bolnege to kya bolenge? Banning words is uncalled for!" senior Congress leader and MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi said in a tweet.
"Creativity, punch, messaging, assault on senses thru words 2bring about reform, tellingly putting across a point— all casualties under new Parl dictionary of unparl words!!how can hypricrisy, ashamed, abuse etc be banned?learn robust, incisive, penetrating debate from uk parl,(sic)" he wrote.
Taking a dig at the Centre, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, "The government's intention is that when it indulges in corruption, it doesnt want anyone to call it corruption, rather term it a masterstroke. They use jumlas like 2 crore jobs, doubling of farmers' income, but want us to say thank you for that."
Here are the words and expressions that have now been listed as unparliamentary by the Lok Sabha secretary:
Covid spreader, Snoopgate , Abused, Ashamed, Betrayed, Corrupt, Drama, Hypocrisy, Incompetent, Anarchist, Dictatorial, Taanashah, Taanashahi, Jaichand, Vinash Purush, Khalistani, Khoon se kheti, Dohra Charitra, Nikamma, Dhindora Peetna, Behri Sarkar, Bloodshed, bloody, betrayed, cheated, chamcha, chamchagiri, chelas, childishness, coward, criminal, crocodile tears, disgrace, donkey, eyewash, fudge, hooliganism, hypocrisy, incompetent, mislead, lie, untrue, gaddar, girgit, goons, ghadiyali ansu, apmaan, asatya, ahankaar, corrupt, kala din, kala bazaari, khareed farokht, danga, dalal, daadagiri, bechara, bobcut, lollypop, vishwasghat, samvedanheen, foolish, pitthu, sexual harrasment.
Amid the row over the list of unparliaentary words, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has said that no word has been "banned". He said the list was 'a compilation of expressions that had been scrubbed off records in the past.'
"Earlier a book of such unparliamentary words used to be released... to avoid wastage of papers, we have put it on internet. No words have been banned, we have issued a compilation of the words that have been expunged," NDTV quoted Birla as saying.