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Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

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A day of great sorrow: Speaker

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI. JULY 23. The Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, said today that he had made up his mind to request the Government to respond on the issue of arrest warrants issued against the Minister for Coal and Mines, Shibu Soren, but was prevented from doing so by the Opposition. "As the Speaker of the House, I was not even allowed to read my statement or make my observations. It is a day of great sorrow," said a visibly pained Mr. Chatterjee.

Addressing the media after he was forced to adjourn the House amid scenes of pandemonium, Mr. Chatterjee said that it was indeed unprecedented that the Opposition refused to allow even the Speaker to make his observations. "This is the first time in the 34 years that I have spent in Parliament that such a thing has happened," he said.

A painful charge

Mr. Chatterjee appeared particularly upset over the charges of "partisanship" levelled against him and challenged the Opposition to point out even one rule or convention which he had violated. "Let them point out even one example and I am willing face the consequences. It is painful that motives are being attributed to me." On several occasions, he had cut short CPI(M) MPs and those of the supporting parties to ensure that everybody got his chance. "In fact, they have been complaining that I am too harsh on them," he said.

Quoting statistics, the Lok Sabha Speaker said the 185-member Opposition was given more time than the rest of the members put together. On several occasions, he had used his discretionary powers to allow the Leader of the Opposition to raise issues even though no prior notice was given. He had allowed Mr. Advani to make his observations when the Prime Minister was introducing his Ministers, and then again before the Finance Minister was to present the budget and again during the course of Mr. Chidambaram's reply to the budget.

Poser to Vajpayee

Mr. Chatterjee also quoted profusely from the speeches made by Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister decrying the Opposition attempts to force the suspension of question hour or the adjournment of the House. "I had specially called on him to request him to help me in running the House smoothly. I wonder what he has to say to all this now," said Mr. Chatterjee.

The Speaker said on Thursday that Mr. Advani came to see him and asked him to intervene in the matter. He told Mr. Advani that he was not allowed to speak so how could he make his observations. Mr. Chatterjee said he had sent a video recording of the proceedings to Mr. Advani in order to enable him to see things for himself.

The Speaker expressed surprise that V.K. Malhotra, Deputy Leader of the BJP Parliamentary party came to his chamber on Thursday and told him that the NDA had decided that the House would not function. "How can people adopt such an attitude?" he asked. Under the rules he did not have the power to direct the Government to follow a particular course of action on the question relating to Mr. Soren, nor could he find out the whereabouts of the Minister. "How can a Speaker find about absconders?" he asked.

I'm not resigning

Pained though he maybe, Mr. Chatterjee has no intention of throwing in the towel. "I am not resigning, I am not a shirker. But I do want everybody to ponder over whether we have strengthened the cause of democracy." He also appealed to the Opposition not go ahead with its proposed boycott of the Standing Committees of Parliament. "It will be a sad day if they do it," he said.

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