Speaker silenced but will MPs behave?

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has had to back down from his decision to refer the names of 32 “unruly” MPs to the Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha.

"I have decided to reconsider the matter and I shall withdraw the same," said Chatterjee on Monday, ending a six-day-old controversy.

Opposition NDA leaders said MPs cannot be punished for protesting on issues and faulted Chatterjee for naming MPs. "The step taken by the Speaker is uncalled for. It is natural for an Opposition MP and also his right to protest on issues which concern the public. You cannot punish an MP because he protested against Government policies," said BJP leader V K Malhotra.

The Opposition, particularly the BJP, have accused Chatterjee of being unfair to them. Opposition MPs on Monday sat in the Lok Sabha with fingers on their lips—their way of protesting against Chatterjee for “silencing” them. They also pointed out that Chatterjee, when he was a an MP, was expelled from the House in 1989.

Chatterjee has several times expressed his frustration at the pandemonium in the House. “MPs are working overtime to finish democracy” and “Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha is torture hour,” he has said.

His complaints appear valid considering the amount of money Parliament loses because of disruptions. The exchequer has lost more than Rs 20 crore because of disruptions in Parliament. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have lost over 130 hours of time because of disruptions.

Do MPs have a right to protest any which they want? Is Chatterjee biased against them or was he just trying to bring order to the House?

CNN-IBN’s Bhupendra Chaubey asked Congress spokesperson M Veerappa Moily, Opposition BJD MP Tathagata Satpathy and constitutional expert Subhash C Kashyap.

“An elected representative is a mirror of the people. When an emotive issue like price rise hits you on the face, MPs have no option but to bring it to the notice of the government in a harshest possible manner. That is what we were trying to do,” said Satpathy, one of the 32 MPs whose names were referred to the Privileges Committee.

Satpathy admitted that MPs may “overreact” some times but wanted the government and the Speaker to give credence to the Opposition’s and the House’s feelings.

Moily said Chatterjee’s action may appear “very radical” but it reflects his “accumulated anguish”. A debate had already been held on inflation but the Opposition was again raising the issue, he said.

Disciplining MPs

What can the Speaker do if MPs don’t listen to him? There are separate rules on disorder in the House and breach of privilege, said Kashyap. “In case of disorder, all the powers rest are vested with the Speaker and the privileges committee doesn’t come in,” he said.

“The Speaker can name the members, and this has happened before. As many as 63 members were suspended in one go for a week on March 15, 1989 for gross misbehaviour. In one of the motions, the first name was that of Somnath Chatterjee.”

Satpathy said he had great respect for Chatterjee but alleged he was not “inclusive” and seemed “impatient” with MPs.

Chatterjee is human and is bound to lose his patience if somebody keeps irritating him but his actions are in the best interest of the House, said Moily.

But how does the Speaker ensure the interest of the House when MPs don’t listen to him? “The Speaker is the servant of the House, not its master. For a Privilege Committee to come in, you need a notice but in this case there was no notice. The Speaker spoke of disorderly conduct but the Privilege Committee is not concerned with disorderly conduct in the House,” said Kashyap.

Is it then that the Speaker must behave but there is no such bar on MPs? Definitely not, Moily and Satpathy. Treasury and Opposition MPs will have to cooperate in the House and behave according to their own self-imposed code of conduct, they said.

SMS poll on Is Somnath Chatterjee biased against the Opposition?

Yes: 85 per cent, No 15 per cent

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