Lok Sabha TV airs Parliament chaos on Sumitra Mahajan's order: Here's how hard the Speaker's job really is

It’s safe to say that the Monsoon Session of Parliament has been a complete washout. On Thursday, the Parliament will meet for the last time before both the Houses reconvene for the Winter Session.

At the heart of the unending logjam in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha has been a spate of controversies plaguing the Narendra Modi government. Starting from the unexplained murders in the Vyapam scam to Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s involvement in the Lalit Modi controversy, Parliament was repeatedly adjourned because of a united Opposition.

Pandemonium engulfed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday as well when agitated Congress members turned sheets of paper into confetti and threw it at Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai and continued their vociferous protest, leading to repeated adjournments of proceedings, as the government tried to take up business for the day.

The House was finally adjourned for the day after two adjournments, because there was no let-up in the protest despite Speaker Sumitra Mahajan strongly expressing her anguish over the developments.

The Speaker further said that she had asked Lok Sabha TV to telecast the scenes on television. “Show them on TV. I am requesting Lok Sabha TV. This is not the way. I won’t adjourn the House… Let people see what kind of behaviour they are showing. Let the whole of India watch. Forty people are hijacking the rights of 440 members,” she added.

This was the first time in more than five years that Lok Sabha TV aired visuals of disruptions in the Lower House. Following the orders of the visibly upset Mahajan, the TV channel promptly aired the visuals which showed the commotion and chaos in the Lok Sabha.

However, this is not the first time that Lok Sabha speaker has lost her cool. Amid the din of screaming parliamentarians, it is understandably hard to keep one’s temper in check. During the Monsoon Session, Mahajan has gone as far as warning the protesting MPs of disciplinarian action against them, and suspending 25 of them .

Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha PJ Kurien, on the second day of the Monsoon Session had given up after several disruptions, and adjourned the Parliament for the day. Kurien said, “The Chair is helpless.”

But a Parliament logjam is no new phenomenon, and Mahajan and Kurien aren’t the first speakers to adjourn their respective Houses amid chaos. In 2008, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee gave vent to his feelings when a CPI (M) leader Basudev Acharia rose to ask the fate of the notice for an adjournment motion given by him on the issue of attacks on minorities.

“Please show little respect. This has become fashion nowadays. If you think that you are strengthening the cause of democracy, it is for you decide. I am on my way out. Don’t think it will influence me. The House should remain. “Naturally, I will be targeted but I do not mind. My only reply is please do some introspection,” he said adding, if he did not take strong action, he was criticised and “if I take very mild action, that is also criticised.”

Watch the video here:

The job of the Speaker has never been really an easy one. In 1997, 11th Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma had said, “I am sad and anguished.” He added, “The slogan-shouting, demonstration and disruption of the House is a mindless mockery of the House and the people.”

Even the ever-smiling Meira Kumar — whose famous lines “baith jaiye”, delivered with her usual drawl, have often been parodied — was driven to losing her smile and yelling at an out-of-order Lok Sabha. During a session in 2012, when the Opposition MPs shouted slogans demanding the hanging of Afzal Guru, who was convicted and sentenced to death for his role in the attack on Parliament, a visibly angry Kumar reprimanded parliamentarians. “On this date, people lost their lives here, they didn’t sacrifice their lives for this,” she said.

Watch the video here:

However, Sangma could be a man with a difference, writes Sagarika Ghose. In 1996, when the Opposition would not let the House function, Sangma apparently rose and smiled. “Not just smiled, he grinned; in fact, he even chuckled. He rose lightly to his feet. “Come on, yaar,” he expostulated, the voice as musical as the guitars of Shillong. “Please, please, come on, come on.” The House giggled. “Can’t you see the chair is on its legs?” he enquired of a riotous member from across the Vindhyas. “Why are you worried?” he soothed a woman MP from the East. “Don’t worry.” Over a sea of bitter dispute, the Speaker’s face floated like the Cheshire Cat’s.”

Having tried to reason with, discipline and suspend MPs, perhaps Mahajan and Kurien could take a page from Sangma’s book and adopt a more light-hearted approach on the last two days of the Monsoon Session.