Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has convened an all-party meet on Thursday in the wake of unruly scenes and the continuing logjam in the Parliament’s Monsoon Session.
Parliament sources said the meeting is not meant to break the deadlock as that is the duty of the Government and not the presiding officer. Instead, the main objective of meeting is for the Speaker to convey her concern over the continuing chaos in the House.
“We have been monitoring Lok Sabha TV since the Monsoon Session started. There is a complete blackout of our protest. This has never happened in the past,” Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh said.
Mahajan has been very upset over the unruly scenes in the House, especially the incident involving Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chaudhury who climbed the podium of the Speaker’s dais and banged his placard against it earlier this week. She asked Chaudhury to leave the House and reprimanded him for “disregarding the authority of the Chair”. He was suspended for the day.
On the same day, one of the Left MPs was heard saying, “This is not the Vatican city and you are not the Pope.”
A few days earlier, when the Speaker warned the agitating members that she will take “disciplinary action” against them, CPI(M) MP Mohammed Salim said, “this is my democratic right. I can’t be stopped from exercising it. Arrest me if you want to stop me.”
Mahajan has repeatedly urged members not to carry placards and black badges inside the House. . “I have not made the rules. They were made by you much before I became Speaker,” she told the agitating members.