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Disruptions in house not good: Birla as Karnataka Cong boycotts special address
Om Birla, during his speech, remarked that ‘disruption of proceedings in a planned manner is not good anywhere’ and maintained that ‘courtesy and mutual respect must be maintained during protests’
New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday said that planned disruptions are not good in parliamentary democracy after the Congress legislators decided to boycott his special address to a joint session of the Karnataka legislature.
State Congress president DK Shivakumar questioned, “Why the Speaker wants to talk about democracy in Karnataka assembly? If he wants to talk about democracy, he should do it in Parliament.”
Shivakumar also claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government set a “bad precedent” by calling the Lok Sabha Speaker to the assembly. “Vidhana Soudha (the assembly) shouldn’t have been used for a political angle,” he said and justified the boycott saying except the President and governor, no one else has ever addressed the assembly.
Birla, during his speech, remarked that “disruption of proceedings in a planned manner is not good anywhere” and maintained that “courtesy and mutual respect must be maintained during protests.”
Addressing the issue of disruption of proceedings and disorderly conduct, Birla said, “As public representatives are directly connected to the people and understand their wants, issues and difficulties, their active participation in the legislative process is required. For this, they must ensure that the valuable time of the Assembly is not wasted due to disruption.”
The Speaker’s comments were also seen by many in the backdrop of the continuous protests during the monsoon session of Parliament. The Lok Sabha could use only 23% of its time due to disruptions in that session.
Birla said once again there is a need for wide-ranging discussions to maintain discipline, decorum and dignity in state legislatures.
While he maintained that “differences and debates are the defining feature of our democratic system”, he emphasised that protest must be dignified and remain within parliamentary norms.
Birla was addressing a special joint session of the Karnataka legislature on the last day of the monsoon session.
