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Parliament: Naidu calls for end to Rajya Sabha stalemate, slams stir over MPs' suspension
The RS Chairman said, “You don’t want to regret your misconduct but insist on revoking the decision of this House taken as per due process... Does this amount to upholding the principles of democracy?”
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday urged the Opposition and government to talk out the ongoing crisis over the suspension of the 12 MPs and let the upper House of Parliament to do its mandated job.
Expressing his anguish over repeated adjournments in the Rajya Sabha amid continued uproar by Opposition MPs over the suspension of their colleagues due to their misconduct in the previous session, Naidu said, “You don’t want to regret your misconduct but insist on revoking the decision of this House taken as per due process stipulated under the Rules of the House. Does this amount to upholding the principles of democracy?”
“The deputy chairman has urged both sides to talk it out and do the needful to move forward to enable normal functioning of the House… I urge both the sides of this august House to talk it out and let the House do it’s mandated job,” he said.
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He said a message is being sought to be sent out that ‘sacrilege’ of the House is democratic but action against such sacrilege is undemocratic. “I am sure people of the country would not buy this new norms of democracy,” he added.
Naidu, who is also the Vice President said some Rajya Sabha MPs were describing the suspension as undemocratic, but he failed to understand if there was any justification in that kind of a narrative.
He said the latest move was not the first of its kind. “Such suspension of members, starting in 1962 happened on 11 occasions till 2010, further to a Motion moved by governments of the day. Were all of them undemocratic? If so, why was it resorted to so many times?” he added.
“Some respected leaders and members of this august House, in their wisdom, chose to describe the suspension of 12 members as ‘undemocratic’. I have struggled to understand if there was any justification in that kind of a narrative being propagated but could not,” Naidu said.
“While calling this suspension as undemocratic both within and outside the House, not even a word being said about reasons given for suspension, the disdainful conduct of some members during last session, which I have categorically called as ‘acts of sacrilege’,” he said.
