The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Assembly adjourned amid dharna

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 18, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Assembly adjourned amid dharna

Special Correspondent

In thelegislature Speaker once again disallows Siddaramaiah from making a statement

LONG WAIT: The former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah (third from left) sitting in the chamber of Leader of the Opposition N. Dharam Singh (second from left) along with Congress leaders (from left) Ramesh Kumar, D.K. Shivakumar, B. Shivaram and B.S. Patil during one of the adjournments of the Legislative Assembly on Monday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: Legislative Assembly Speaker Krishna on Monday adjourned the House for the day following a dharna by the former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his supporters, backed Congress members. The Congress staged the dharna after the Speaker, once again, did not allow the former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to make a statement prior to his resignation from the House.

The Speaker's ruling, soon after the House assembled, led to uproarious scenes, with Mr. Siddaramaiah and his eight associates, who are associated with the All-India Progressive Janata Dal, staging a dharna. The Congress members, led by Leader of the Opposition N. Dharam Singh and senior leader M. Mallikarjun Kharge, supported them and raised anti-government slogans.

The Speaker adjourned the House for 30 minutes. But when Mr. Siddaramaiah and the Congress members persisted with their demand, the Speaker adjourned the House for lunch.

Precedent cited

Earlier, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the Speaker should allow him to make a statement explaining why he was resigning. Justifying his demand, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that in 1977 M.R. Jayaram was allowed to make a statement in the House before his resignation by the then Speaker, K.S. Nagarathnamma. Mr. Jayaram resigned from the Congress and joined the Janata Party. Mr. Siddaramaiah said he had to inform the House and the people about his resignation, as otherwise it would be a dereliction of duty on his part.

But Mr. Krishna rejected his plea and said there was no precedent for a member to make a statement prior to his resignation. The rules were clear, and it was for the member to submit his resignation in the prescribed format to his office.

Mr. Siddaramaiah termed the Speaker's decision undemocratic and unconstitutional. "I don't see any valid ground to reject my plea. How can you (Speaker) prevent me from making a statement? Please review your decision and allow me to make an explanation," he said.

Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs M.P. Prakash said that even in the Lok Sabha members were not allowed to make a statement before their resignation. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who gave up her membership on the office of profit issue, and S. Bangarappa, who resigned from the BJP and was later elected on a Samajwadi Party ticket, were not allowed to make statements. Their requests to make statements were rejected by the Speaker's office itself. Mr. Prakash pleaded with the Chair to reject the plea.

At one stage, M.P. Renukacharya (BJP) and Mahadev (AIPJD) got into an argument on the issue for a while when the former defended the Speaker's decision. The Speaker told both members to occupy their seats and behave properly. Mr. Dharam Singh said injustice had been meted out to Mr. Siddaramaiah by disallowing him to make a statement. Mr. Kharge said the people of the State were anxiously awaiting Mr. Siddaramaiah's statement and he would complete it in just 10 minutes. Ramesh Kumar and D.K. Shivakumar (Congress), B.R. Patil (AIPJD) and Vaijanth Patil (expelled from the JD-S) also appealed to the Speaker to review his ruling.

The AIPJD members are technically members of the JD-S.

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