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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, Feb 8: The Meeting of floor leaders of the House with Speaker G M C Balayogi scheduled for February 21 will discuss the trend of blocking the proceedings by Opposition members. The trend has assumed serious proportions in recent times and members of the House had come in for strong criticism by many sections of the public.
Balayogi who had expressed his concern over this development, especially during the last two sessions, intends to take up the issue at the meeting which will be attended by the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and parliamentary affairs Minister P R Kumaramangalam.
Sources said one view under consideration by the Speaker was to entrust the job of maintaining decorum in the house to the respective party leaders.
In focus will be the unprecedented ruckus created by the Samajwadi party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal in the Lok Sabha to block the Women’s Reservation Bill. RJD member Surendra Yadav virtually snatched the papers from Law Minister M Thambi Durai forcing an abrupt adjourment of the House. The Government had planned to move a motion to initiate disciplinary action against the concerned members but the move was dropped at the last minute.
The last session witnessed fisticuffs between Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party member Dargo Prasad Saroj, again over the introduction of the Women’s Bill.
It may be recalled that the pandemonium forced the Speaker to order an independent member Anand Mohan out of the house. When he was being evicted by the marshals, he had banged the glass panes outside the house.
Sources said the Speaker was of the view of the view such incidents brought disrepute to the House and affected the credibility of parliamentary democracy.
