The Hindu : National : Somnath hurt at conduct of MPs

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Friday, Jul 23, 2004

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National

Somnath hurt at conduct of MPs

By Javed M. Ansari

NEW DELHI. JULY 22. "It seems that the Chair has become totally irrelevant in this House. You don't even allow the Chair to speak. Is this the kind of impression that you want the people to have of the House?" That was the Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee's anguished observation when the House reassembled after its second adjournment of the day.

It has been a trying and testing time for Mr. Chatterjee as he tried to restore order and discipline in the functioning of the House.

During question hour, Anant Geethe (Shiv Sena) protested against the Speaker's decision not to adjourn the House despite the commotion created by the Opposition. "This is no way to conduct the House," he was heard saying. Yesterday, his party colleague Prakash Paranjpe told the Speaker that he "was very mild when it came to dealing with CPI (M) members."

Mr. Paranjpe's remarks earned him a rebuke from the Speaker who told him in no uncertain terms that "by casting aspersions on the Chair, the member was also demeaning the whole House."

Apart from the two members, Opposition MPs have often been heard passing comments against the Speaker.

Not soft on Left

Ever since he took over as the Speaker, Mr. Chatterjee has been trying to restore some order and method in the functioning of the House. Having spent over three decades as a member of the Lok Sabha, he is well versed with both its rules of procedure as well as conventions.

On several occasions, Mr. Chatterjee has come down hard on members of the Left parties when they tried to speak out of turn or had a go at the Opposition parties. Yesterday, on two occasions he forced the Left party MPs to cut short their speeches, as they had exceeded the time allotted to them. He has repeatedly made the point that after having assumed the Speaker's position his concern is for the entire House and his party affiliations had taken a back seat.

Today, he permitted the Leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani, to make submissions on two separate occasions, and, on his request, he even adjourned the House for the day. Yesterday, when the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, was replying to the Budget debate he again allowed Mr. Advani to have his say mid-way during the Minister's speech.

However, today's developments, which led to a near fracas in the House, appear to have hurt the Speaker.

According to some senior MPs who met him, he feels deeply aggrieved at the manner in which motives were being ascribed to him. "All I am trying to do is to ensure that Parliament functions in a disciplined manner and that we should not do anything that will lower the prestige of the House. It is sad and unfortunate that motives are being ascribed," he is reported to have remarked.

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