On Day 1, MPs from region rile Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla

New Delhi, June 26

Lok Sabha MPs from the region drew the ire of newly elected Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla while he was accepting greetings of members on Wednesday post his elevation to the chair of the presiding officer.

The first to be rapped by Birla was Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the lone Lok Sabha MP from SAD when she said that some MPs had “compromised their ideologies to get elected”.

“No, no…,” Birla was heard saying, admonishing her to skip political statements on the first working day under the new presiding officer.

After Harsimrat, AAP MP from Hoshiarpur Raj Kumar Chabbewal was cut short by Birla when he raised the issue of non-grant of the Deputy Speaker’s post to the Opposition. “You should read the Constitution on this,” Birla said to the Hoshiarpur MP.

Srinagar lawmaker Agha Mehdi of the National Conference invited serious reprimand from Birla for making “out of line” comments in the House. Mehdi raked up the abrogation of Article 370 saying the matter was cleared by the House within an hour.

“You do not know. The matter (Article 370) witnessed a nine-hour debate,” Om Birla told Mehdi.