Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday said if something is expunged, in deference to this parliamentary institution, no member should make an issue out of it, and the remark should never get traction.

The Chair made the remarks when Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge demanded an apology for Waqf remarks made by BJP lawmaker Anurag Thakur.

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The BJP MP had said, “The Karnataka government collected Rs 4.50 crore, and you spent that money. You should have answered those. Did you take the money from the masjid or the Waqf board?”

Thakur withdrew the name of a leader immmediately after naming him at the Speaker’s direction.

Mr Dhankhar said, ”I then said one thing – if something is expunged, as a respect to this parliamentary institution, no Member should make an issue out of it but the Hon’ble Member continued. He is a very senior Member.”

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, LoP Kharge asked BJP MP Anurag Thakur to prove the ‘wild’ allegations against him or resign. He said he would resign if ‘land grab’ allegations levelled against him by the BJP lawmaker are proved.

Mr Dhankhar said, ”If we examine the issue critically, it boils down to certain situations. It raises two very important issues, one issue is that a Member of Parliament uses the great privilege of being Member of the House, which is constitutional protection because anything said by a Member in the House there is no severe recourse and no criminal action can be initiated. An immunity is granted to a Member when the Member speaks in the House.”

He said that he has reiterated several times that ”this is not a place for free fall of information; we cannot damage reputations earned over decades and over half a century.”

He said the House has a reputation to preserve, and therefore, anything that has been expunged should never get traction.

”Only this week, I had expressed my deep anguish as Kharge ji has expressed, when one of the Members of this House made an observation, but traction took place, though the Member did not go by what was expunged.”

He said in this electronic age, explosive social media, anything said gets traction in microseconds. Therefore, the expunction of remarks by the Chair is hardly a remedy, he added.

He said that everyone, whether he is the prime minister, leader of the House, leader of the Opposition, for him, every Member has a reputation to preserve, and therefore anything that has been expunged should never get traction.

He said, ”Because we expect a Member who may emotively be carried on account of being a new Member or otherwise, and he apologises in the House, it only improves the image of the Member concerned. But it is very difficult to control the media traction.”

Mr Dhankhar said, “I showed highest respect to the leader of the Opposition but if you mean to politicise then let me tell you expunction by Chairman should bring quietus to the issue.’

‘He said he has tasked the Ethics Committee headed by Ghanshyam Tiwari to get in touch with experts, try to devise a mechanism so that members can be counselled.