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HomeIndiaEquality before law, no privileges, says LS Speaker Om Birla on ED-Rahul...

Equality before law, no privileges, says LS Speaker Om Birla on ED-Rahul Gandhi affair

Speaker Birla, who completes 3 years in office, wants political parties to make a code of conduct for MPs. He Speaks to ThePrint about his tenure in LS and his political legacy.

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New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the alleged National Herald money-laundering case, is unlikely to get any succour from Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, had written to Speaker Wednesday seeking his intervention and alleging that ED was meting out “inhuman treatment” to the Wayanad Member of Parliament by grilling him for 10-11 hours a day. It smacked of a “heinous conspiracy to settle political scores”, Choudhury said.

In an interview with ThePrint, Om Birla emphasised that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law, suggesting his disinclination to intervene in the ED-Gandhi affair.

“A Member of Parliament has privileges. He has freedom of expression in the Parliament. He has privileges when it comes to anything obstructing his work in the Parliament but law is the same for everyone. According to the Indian Constitution, nobody has any privilege in matters of law. This is the speciality of our country’s democracy,” he said.

Speaker Birla, who completed three years in office Sunday, also wants every political party to make a code of conduct for its parliamentarians, forbidding them, among other things, to enter the well of the House.

Though his three-year-tenure has been very productive in terms of legislative business transacted – more than what the last three Lok Sabhas achieved in eight sessions — frequent disruptions have tainted that record.

“Disruptions are caused in assemblies and the Lok Sabha in a planned and organised way. I have expressed concern about it publicly…. Sloganeering, placards and coming to the Well of the House is not in keeping with our parliamentary tradition…and its dignity,” Om Birla told ThePrint, explaining why he wants parties to have “internal” codes of conduct for their MPs. “People expect from their MPs to work as a jansevak. They ask questions as to why MPs are getting salaries and allowances if the House is not functioning.”

Birla dismissed suggestions that the opposition was left with no choice but to disrupt, especially given that they have little say in a House where the ruling party enjoys a brute majority.

“If you speak from your seat and speak with facts and logic, the government will also have to listen to you and the Chair will also have to give its ruling,” said the Speaker.

He has an impressive record to show: 106 per cent productivity for the first eight sessions of the 17th Lok Sabha as against 95 per cent for the same period in the 16th Lok Sabha, 71 per cent in the 15th and 86 per cent in the 14th. In terms of the Bills introduced and passed — 139 and 149 — for the said period, the 17th Lok Sabha has done much better than the previous three. The same holds true for the average time taken for the discussion of the bills.


Also Read: What drives Indians’ outrage, and the real ‘culprit’ ED should probe in National Herald case


‘No steamrolling in Parliament’ 

Yet, there is criticism galore of how the Parliament is becoming dysfunctional as very few bills are sent for parliamentary scrutiny- just 13 per cent in the 17th Lok Sabha till 2021. The government, for instance, steamrolled the three contentious farm laws in Parliament, rejecting the opposition’s demands in the Lok Sabha to send them to the parliamentary standing committee or the select committee.

Faced with vociferous opposition by farmers, these laws had to be repealed — in minutes without any discussion.

However, Speaker Birla denied the allegations saying that more than 50 per cent of the bills were sent to the standing committee in the eighth Lok Sabha session.

“It’s for the government to take a view on whether a bill has to be sent to the standing committee and to be discussed (and passed) in the House,” he said.

Birla argued that before bringing a proposed law to the Parliament, the government circulates the draft for public feedback and also holds consultations with stakeholders and experts.

Asked for his view on whether the ‘whip’ system should be done away with in matters of lawmaking to enable parliamentarians to express their views that may run contrary to their parties’, Birla was circumspect.

“Many MPs give positive feedback during law-making. But because they come from a certain ideology, a certain party, it has become a convention that the party or the ideology you have been elected from, you should not vote against that,” he said.

“People of the country have chosen you on the basis of your party. People have given a mandate to that party to make laws and the government works on the basis of the schemes and the policies for which it got the mandate.”

On his political legacy

On a personal note, Speaker Birla said neither of his two daughters — Anjali, a civil servant, and Akanksha, a chartered accountant — was interested in politics.

So, what happens to his political legacy?

“Thousands of workers who have been working for the organisation (the BJP) and are dedicated and have made sacrifices should get an opportunity (to carry on his political legacy),” said Birla.

The Lok Sabha Speaker, while pushing for reforms in the way our Parliament and parliamentarians function, is now looking forward to carrying out his work from the new parliament building from the next Winter session in November-December.

“The new Parliament building is the mirror of new Aatmanirbhar Bharat.”

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)


Also Read: ED summons to Rahul Gandhi a shot in arm for Congress. For cadre, this creates a problem


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