Bringing Parliament on track: Will Sumitra Mahajan take disciplinary action against Congress?

By Swati Deb New Delhi: As the stalemate in Parliament continues and the antagonism between the ruling BJP and the principal opposition Congress intensifies with counter charges against Congress chief ministers, including in Uttarakhand, all eyes are now on the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. [caption id=“attachment_2358478” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan. PTI[/caption] The BJP sources said “disciplinary action” or the threat of enforcing discipline by the presiding officer in Lok Sabha could yield results and Congress will be left isolated soon. “The Congress is walking into its own trap. It will be exposed and isolated as no regional party shares the same sentiment as Congress with regard to disrupting parliament,” Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told Firstpost. “Inke haat kucch nahi ane waala,” he added. The Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Wednesday has already warned members who indulge in disorderly conduct of disciplinary. “In the event of disorderly conduct, I would be constrained to initiate appropriate disciplinary action against erring members,” she said after Congress and Left members stormed into the Well carrying placards to protest over the Lalit Modi issue. With placards reading ‘bade Modi meherban…Chhota Modi pehelwan’ Congress members including Adhir Ranjan Choudhury among others tried to drag Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the Lalitgate issue wherein former IPL cricket administrator was allegedly helped by BJP leaders like Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje. The reading in BJP camp is that most non-Congress and non-BJP parties like BJD, Samajwadi, Trinamool and TRS were against continuous disruption of the House and this very “disunity” will isolate Congress. The reading in BJP camp also is that Sumitra Mahajan could possibly oblige the government and enforce discipline. On the first day of monsoon session on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu had also met Speaker in her office chamber. Reportedly, the government told the Speaker that if necessary “rule book should apply” as the chair is empowered to name or suspend any member who troop into the well of the House. Speaker Mahajan, a seasoned parliamentarian is aware of the power of the chair and is known for maintaining order and decorum in the House. BJP strategists are of the opinion that the ruling party members or even the Parliamentary Affairs Minister may move a resolution to empower the Speaker to take such a harsh step. Incidentally in Rajya Sabha, the ruling Congress has the number advantage and also the two presiding officers Vice President Hamid Ansari and deputy chairman P J Kurien — are hardly known for sharing a good equation with any BJP leader. While BJP has 48 members of its own, Congress has 68. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, elected on a BJP ticket from Indore, was at the centre of a controversy in the last session when opposition members from Congress had charged her of “favouring” the ruling party. They had particularly complained when she allowed repeated statements by ministers on the Amethi food park row. Congress member Devender Singh Hooda had questioned the Speaker’s decision to allow the intervention by the minister more than once. “How can a minister give a statement five times on the same issue? Why did you allow the minister to give the statement when she had already made interventions earlier on the same issue?” an agitated Hooda had asked the Speaker. “You check the record first and then speak. Will you say sorry if the record turned out to be against your claims?” Ms Mahajan had countered Hooda. Earlier too, other members have spoken in a similar vein. Congress floor leader Mallikarjun Kharge has been one of them. At one point, Mahajan told an AAP member that he could not raise PM Modi’s much publicised ‘Mann ki baat’ programme in the House. On 9 July, 2014, an agitated Trinamool member Kalyan Banerjee had a row with the Chair. Anguished by repeated protests and a Trinamool Congress member telling her that she was “not the Speaker of Narendra Modi”, Mahajan had pulled up some unruly members. Observing that some actions “hurt” the sentiments of the House, a visibly disturbed Speaker had said the question was one of dignity and decorum of the House and what has happened was “extremely unfortunate”. Mahajan’s strong observations came soon after fresh protests by Trinamool Congress members, who had rushed into the Well, and its leader Kalyan Banerjee telling Mahajan “You are not Speaker of BJP, you are not the Speaker of Narendra Modi.” “The undignified conduct of some BJP members since Tuesday is extremely unfortunate. We all have been hurt by disruptions in the House during the last few days,” she later ruled, deprecating the use of “unbecoming” language, “It is a more serious matter if someone does not want to maintain the dignity of the Chair,” she had said.