Hurt and anguished by the unruly scenes created by some members in the House for the past a few days, Speaker Om Birla stayed away from chairing the proceedings of LokSabha for the second consecutive day on Thursday.
Birla’s sentiments were conveyed to the House by BJDlawmaker BhartruhariMahtab, who chaired proceedings at the start of the day.Mahtab said Birla was saddened by the behaviour of some members and he hasevery right to express his anguish.
Usually, Birla chairs House proceedings at the start of theday. But for the second consecutive day he did not come to the House, which hasbeen rocked by Opposition protest over Delhi violence since the second leg ofthe Budget session began on March 2.
Sources in the Speaker’s Office said said Birla was unlikelyto attend the House on Friday as well. They said Birla has repeatedly requestedfloor leaders from all parties to end the logjam and stop their members fromdoing anything which may hurt the dignity of the House.
The Speaker called several meetings of floor leaders of allparties to find a way for smooth functioning of the House but members from bothsides — ruling and opposition — got into pushing and shoving each other andthis has not gone down well with him. Therefore, he decided to stay away fromchairing the proceedings, the sources said.
When contacted, former LokSabha Secretary General andconstitutional expert SubhashKashyap said by not attending the House thespeaker is not violating any rules.The panel of chairperson is there, whichcomprises members of parliament to chair the proceedings of the House inabsence of the speaker.