Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said no word has been banned from use in Parliament and members are free to express their views while maintaining decorum of the House. Birla’s comments came amid a controversy over publication of a booklet by the Lok Sabha Secretariat that listed words such as ‘ashamed’, ‘jumlajeevi’, ‘taanashah’, ‘abused’, ‘betrayed’, ‘corrupt’, ‘drama’, ‘hypocrisy’ and ‘incompetent’ as unparliamentary expressions.

“No word has been banned. Members are free to express their views. No one can snatch that right, but it should be as per decorum of Parliament,” Birla told reporters even as the Opposition targeted the government, accusing it of listing every word used by them to “describe how BJP was destroying India” as unparliamentary.

Birla said people unaware of parliamentary practices were making all kinds of comments and asserted that legislatures were independent of government. “It is a routine practice continuing since 1959,” he said referring to the release of the booklet compiling lists of words and expressions deemed unparliamentary. Birla said words chosen for expunging have been used by members of the ruling party as well as the opposition.