Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla today said that the members of the house should maintain its dignity and must refrain from making a statement against the Chair inside and outside the House. Birla’s apparent reference was to a social media post by Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra who criticised the Chair, accusing it of taking her valuable time.
Without naming Moitra, Birla today said in the Lok Sabha, “Honourable members, I want to bring a subject to your notice that, be it inside the house or outside the house, comments made on the chair is not good for the dignity of the house. The dignity of the house is of a very high standard and every honourable member respects it. The chair always tries to be impartial and works impartially, runs the house by rules and the honourable member who sits on the speaker’s chair gets all the constitutional rights available to the chair. I request you that one should not make a comment about the chair either insider or outside the house.”
Birla said that there may be a difference of opinion between the member and the chair and members can always visit his chamber to talk about it. “This is the dignity of parliamentary democracy and I hope that you all will agree with this. I have taken serious cognisance of incidents that had happened in the past few days. I want to request all members that commenting on the chair, especially outside the house using social media and media is not right. You are a member of the house and you may have a conflict with the chair sometimes, you can come to my chamber to tell me about that. I will listen to you,” he said.
Birla also thanked the members for sitting till late at night in the house during harsh winter and urged them to maintain the dignity of the house.
Leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury agreed with the chair and said that his party will cooperate with the chair.
Sudip Bandyopadhyay, TMC MP, said that he shared the chair’s sentiment wholeheartedly. “We are certainly of the opinion that the prestige of the house should always be kept at a level where we should all remain committed to that principles, ideas and philosophy of this house,” said Bandopadhyay, adding that the Sanctum of Sanctorum of the house should be maintained.
Criticising the chair yesterday, Moitra had said in a series of tweets, “LS Speaker had allotted AT LEAST 13 mins to me when confronted in his chamber, he claimed he was not in chair hence can’t be blamed. When further cornered, he said – It was my greatness that I even allowed you 13 mins in 1st place. Unbelievable. And who is Chair to interrupt me (taking up MY valuable time) to lecture me on whether I should speak with gussa or pyar? None of your business Madam. You can only correct me on rules. You are NOT the moral science teacher for LS.”
BJP MP from Bihar Rama Devi was in the chair when Mahua Moitra was speaking during the Motion of Thanks to the President in the Lower House.