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Venkaiah Naidu wants automatic suspension of unruly members in Parliament
He said a consensus in this regard needed to be evolved taking inspiration from a resolution adopted by the Rajya Sabha in 1997
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Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu suggested on Monday automatic suspension of unruly lawmakers disrupting proceedings in legislatures and naming them publicly for their behaviour.
The suggestion from Naidu, who is the Rajya Sabha chairperson, came four days before Parliament sits for its winter session.
“Legislatures may display the names of the members in public domain with an observation that they have violated rules in disregard of the directions of the Chair and, thereby, adversely impacting the functioning of the House,” Naidu said.
The Lok Sabha already has a rule for automatic suspension of its members disturbing proceedings.
There has been a demand for a similar provision in the Upper House of Parliament.
The two Houses of Parliament are often adjourned because of members dashing to the well and shouting slogans, disrupting debates and stalling bills.
Consensus is needed “to address the menace of members rushing to the well”, Naidu said delivering a lecture on the “Importance of Legislatures” in the national capital.
Automatic suspension will allow the Chair to take prompt action against any unruly MP after the Rajya Sabha passes a resolution against the member. Complaints of unruly behaviour are currently referred to a House panel for its recommendation.
Publicly naming an MP for disturbing proceedings is a measure popularly called “naming and shaming”. It is an extremely rare step taken by the Chair after several warnings to the unruly lawmaker.
The Chair mentions the MP in the House and the lawmaker’s name is then published in bulletins. Opposition leaders were sceptical about Naidu’s suggestions.
“There are set rules and well-laid precedence by which the House runs in Parliament. We hope the chairman will adhere to those well-established practices and precedence,” CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.
According to the Congress’s Rajya Sabha member Abhishek Manu Singhvi, rules need not be tinkered unless there is an exigency. “The Vice President has not really had to yet chair any session substantially. Nothing has changed suddenly for him to seek enhanced power,” he said, underscoring that uniform rules for the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha “may not be always necessary”.
As a senior minister in the government before being elected Vice President this August, Naidu has experienced the difficulties of pushing through important bills in the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP-led NDA has fewer members than the Opposition. The House witnessed more disruptions than the Lok Sabha, where the NDA enjoys a brute majority.
The Congress-led UPA, which governed the country for a decade before 2014, faced similar problems as bills were often held up in the Upper House in the absence of political consensus.
Naidu also suggested that maintaining quorum in the House — minimum number of members present — shouldn’t be the responsibility of the government and the ruling party alone, but other parties should pitch in too. He sought minimum attendance for all parties
