Planned disruptions anti-democratic: Birla
New Delhi, January 12
Even as the three-day All-India Presiding Officers Conference (AIPOC) concluded today in Jaipur on a note of advice for the three organs of government to stick to their roles defined in the Constitution, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, in his address, cautioned lawmakers too, saying “pre-planned organised disruptions are not good for democracy”.
He said presiding officers and public representatives should contribute in making the legislative bodies ideal institutions through “maximum dialogue in the House, proper use of technology and strong connect between the people and the legislature”.
In his valedictory address, Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra described presiding officers as the final interpreters of the rules of the House. He said not just majority, but public interest and healthy debate should be the basis for passing Bills. On the role of Raj Bhavans, Mishra said a Governor was not a person but a constitutional institution.
The presiding officers adopted nine resolutions, including one on India’s G-20 presidency. Meanwhile, terming Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s remarks on the landmark 1973 Kesavananda Bharati case verdict as an “extraordinary attack on the judiciary”, the Congress said a “no-holds-barred assault” on one constitutional institution by another was “quite unprecedented”.
Dhankhar had on Wednesday criticised the scrapping of the NJAC Act in 2015 and also questioned the Kesavananda Bharati case verdict. “In my 18 years as MP, I’ve never heard anyone criticise the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati judgment of the Supreme Court,” AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted, adding: “‘In fact, legal luminaries of the BJP like Arun Jaitley hailed it as a milestone. Now, the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha says it was wrong. Extraordinary attack on the judiciary!”
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram tweeted: “The Hon’ble Chairman of the Rajya Sabha is wrong when he says that Parliament is supreme. It is the Constitution that is supreme.”
