Round The States

New Delhi, 20 January 2024

Bharat Jodo NyayYatra

ASSAM GIVES HOPE TO CONG

By Insaf 

BJP-ruled Assam has pleasantly surprised the Congress, rather given a fillip to Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat JodoNyayYatra,’kicked off from Manipur. “Women assembled for a function organised by the Assam CM in Mariani spontaneously and enthusiastically met @RahulGandhi on Day 5 of the BJNY. NYAY for Assam has begun!” read the party’s X post. Indeed, as a large number of rural women in Jorhat, who had gathered to collect forms for a newly announced government scheme were seen leaving their queues to greet Rahul, who had reached Mariani town from neighbouring Sivasagar district around Thursday noon. The video on social media showed women showering affection and sought to click pictures with him, before he proceeded further. 

The response has triggered a bitter controversy. Congress has accused Chief Minister Sarma trying to derail the yatra. First by creating obstacles, such as fixing dates for the distribution of forms in such a manner that it deliberately clashed with Rahul yatra and second having an FIR registered suomoto by the police against the yatra and its chief organiser KB Byju for allegedly ‘deviating from its permitted route inside Jorhat town,’ leading to chaos. Whereas, the Congress said ‘the assigned route was too small, and we had a huge gathering. So, we took a detour for just a few metres... Sarma wants to make the yatra a flop.” Who is more successful, is anybody’s guess. The yatra has 17 districts on its schedule in the state till January 25 and there’s bound to be more heat and dust raised. But all eyes are on the big story—preparations for D-Day, January 22 and Ayodhya. The twist and turns the yatra takes, must take a backseat, at least till then.

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Chandigarh Mayor Poll Drama

Chandigarh mayoral elections have kicked up a storm. The AAP and Congress have accused BJP of not allowing these to be held under fear of its “imminent defeat”! Thursday should have seen a new civic team, but the polls were abruptly postponed on ‘pretext’ the presiding office Anil Masih, had fallen sick. After high drama outside municipal corporation office and filing of a petition in Punjab & Haryana High Court by AAP, the DC announced February 6 as the next date of poll. Interestingly, he has nominated Masih as presiding officer, giving credence to allegations that “BJP sent him to hospital” as “majority of officers responsible for the election, including presiding officer and secretary, municipal corporation, belong to the Haryana cadre, where BJP is in power, and they are under party’s influence.” All this, because this election was being viewed as the first test between INDIA bloc and BJP as both AAP and Congress reached an understanding -- AAP to field mayor candidate, while Congress to contest for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor posts. So, if voting went as per party lines, then their 20 combined votes were sufficient to defeat BJP, which since past 8 years has held the mayor’s post. The postponement not only saves BJP the embarrassment but gives it time to work on ‘Operation Lotus’, says opposition. Will February 6^th prove it right? 

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System Fails Rural Kids

The education system in the country has failed the rural kids! The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 ‘Beyond Basics’ by NGO Pratham released on Wednesday, following a survey in 28 districts across 26 States reveals not much has changed over the decade and kids continue to struggle with basic reading and arithmetic skills well into teenage years. Specifically, 42% of children aged 14 to 18 years in rural India can’t read easy sentences in English; over half can’t even solve simple 3-digit division problems, usually taught in 3-4^th standard; about 25% can’t read a class 2 level text fluently in their regional language! While there’s lot more statistics from 34,745-youth surveyed, the message for Government is: ‘Catch up efforts for foundational literacy and numeracy are needed…not only for doing better in school but also for everyday needs.’ Shockingly, it has done precious little, despite its NEP 2020 stating, ‘urgent need for ensuring that by Std III, children have acquired basic reading and arithmetic skills.” Time it did its own homework right!

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Cong AP Comeback?

The Congress is desperately trying to make a comeback in Andhra Pradesh. Less than two weeks of YS Sharmila, sister of Chief Minister YS Jagan Reddy Mohan and daughter of former CM Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, joining the party, it appointed her as President of the state unit on Tuesday last, and compensated outgoing chief GiduguRudraRaju, as special invitee to the CWC. The change,just before general and Assembly elections may not go down well with old timers, but the party doesn’t have much to lose. Since 2014, it has failed to get a single MLA or MP elected, so even if Sharmila can score a small success, the party can pat itself. A lot, however, depends on how she changes the label of ‘belonging to Telangana’ and lay a claim to YSR’s political legacy in the State, which brother Jagan has used to his advantage to the hilt. Political analysts do not give the Congress much space as the battle is clearly between YSR Congress and the TDP. Sharmila has a long way to go, starting with testing the waters within the grand old party itself.

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Bihar Largesse

Bihar government is wasting no time to woo the voters. On Tuesday last, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced the Laghu Udyami Yojana,(Bihar small entrepreneur scheme)wherein one member of each family, earning less than Rs 6000 per month (9.4 million families), will get Rs 2 lakh over five years. The first of three instalments was sanctioned by the Cabinet i.e., Rs 50,000, to be disbursed next month to five lakh families selected through a computerised randomisation process‘to set up and run small industrial or processing units, such as handicraft, textile, saloon, eateries, among 63 types of units.’ The schemewill be implemented by industries department, and members of such families will need to apply online and produce the proof of family income to claim benefits. Another scheme approved was of providing one-time financial grant ranging from ₹75,000 to ₹30,000 to students from EBC families preparing for civil services (mains) exams. There is a catch though. A lot will hinge on budgetary allocations. The big question being where will these additional thousands of crores come from? ---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

REWIND

New Delhi, 18 January 2024

Opposition Unity And V.P. Singh

By Inder Jit

(Released on 11 October 1988)

All those interested in seeing a strong Opposition emerge as a credible alternative to the Congress-I at the national level will need to keep their fingers crossed. The Janata, Lok Dal-B, Congress-S and Jan Morcha are due to meet at a foundation conference at Bangalore today to launch their unified party to be called Samajwadi or Rashtriya Janata Dal. High drama preceded this meeting during the past fortnight and more. On occasions, the unified party appeared to be coming through. On others, its formation looked like going up in smoke. It was touch and go on Monday last week when the Steering Committee failed to meet. Hopes revived when the Committee met a day later on Tuesday. But a question mark again went up over its future by Friday night. Fortunately, Mr. V.P. Singh, backed by Mr. R.K. Hegde, Mr. Biju Patnaik and many others, persevered in their decision to hold the party’s foundation conference on October 11, birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan. Nevertheless, one question remains. Will the leaders merely pay lip service to the Lok Nayak or will they truly emulate JP and put the country before self?

The problem is the unified party’s leadership has been resolved in favour of Mr. V.P. Singh, notwithstanding some unnecessary and graceless remarks reportedly made by Mr. Chandra Shekhar. Mr. Singh is undoubtedly the Opposition’s best bet today for the next general election. He is widely viewed as a fine person and a man of character and probity, unaffected by sharp Congress-I attacks on him and his policies. But he has still to show that he has vision and qualities of leadership required for guiding our huge country of over 800 million people and for providing a good government. (Remember, self-government is no substitute for good government!) Candidly, his popular image today no longer shines as brightly as it did when he founded the Jan Morcha or impressively triumphed over the Congress-I in the Allahabad by-election to the Lok Sabha in mid-June. Even his friends and known supporters are concerned, if not worried. Willy nilly, he seems at the moment to have needlessly reduced himself to the level of the other Opposition leaders, most of whom have little charisma and even less credibility.

Many Opposition leaders feel that “VP” has not shown the decisiveness and boldness expected of him as the new leader in the past few weeks. Mr. Singh, they argue, was given full authority by the Janata, Lok Dal-B, Congress-S and Jan Morcha to go ahead and form the unified party --- the SJD and a Steering Committee. But the exercise has left much to be desired and, in the bargain, not only raised doubts over the unity moves but even given a convenient handle to persons who have been basking in his reflected glory during the past year to attack him publicly. One can understand Mr. Singh’s desire to carry the leaders of all the four parties with him in the footsteps of JP. I recall his telling me some time back that the real art of politics lies in the management of disharmony and not just of harmony. However, the outcome so far has been far from flattering. The Steering Committee and its composition has not inspired much confidence, apart from the fact that it has attracted avoidable flak and created an impression of superficial ad hocism and absence of a national perspective. Surprisingly, Mr. Singh failed to consult all those concerned.

The Steering Committee, intended to be the nucleus of the new party, is dominated by persons from UP and the rest of the Hindi States. True, the Hindi heartland is crucial for winning the next poll battle. Nevertheless, the Committee needed to be more representative of various regions and special interests such as the minorities, women and youth. Surprisingly, the South is represented only by Mr. Hegde and Mr. K.P. Unnikrishnan, who hails from Kerala. Maharashtra, Punjab and West Bengal, too, are unrepresented. (Prof. Madhu Dandavate has been included only as a special invitee) Equally surprisingly, women are conspicuous by their absence. Several names come to mind easily, especially those of Mr. Mrinal Gore and Mrs. Premila Dandavate. The Committee’s strength could have been increased to at least 2 and even to 31 and not limited to 17, a figure which had no special sanctity. Advantage should have been taken of the experience and approach of the pre-independence Congress. Its Working Committee normally comprised 21 members plus some special invitees, if necessary.

The Opposition leaders have none but themselves to blame if their image has slumped and fresh doubts have arisen about their ability to provide credible alternative to the Congress-I. Far too many among them have been speaking out of turn --- often at cross purposes. Far too many meetings have been handled tactlessly, leading to avoidable heart-burning. A case in point is the meeting of the Steering Committee, which failed to be held on October 3. It should have been convened only after differences had been ironed out and ground work completed. Failure to hold the meeting only tarnished the image of the Opposition at a time when it desperately needs to win friends and influence people. Mr. Singh should have striven to ensure that there was no confusion over the Jan Morcha’s stand in regard to the basic issue of unity, leading to messy situation in which Mr. Ram Dhan felt emboldened to publicly attack Mr. Singh as well as the entire leadership of the Janata, Lok Dal-B and Congress-S and denounce it in astonishingly strong terms.

Not a little of the blame must go to Chandra Shekhar. Undoubtedly, Mr. Chandra Shekhar is a man of ideals and has not few other admirable qualities which made JP choose him as the youthful President of the Janata Party in 1977. Sadly, however, he has allowed his unrequited ambition to run away with his better sense and the ideal of selflessness advocated by his mentor --- JP. Instead of helping the Opposition parties to come together in response to popular demand, he has been dragging his feet and seems to have left no stratagem untried to block unity and “VP”. Mercifully, he did turn up at the Steering Committee meeting on Wednesday last even if he was late by an hour. He also greed to the persuasion of Mr. Singh and Mr. Hegde to head the Sub-Committee set up to draw up the SJD’s policies and programmes. But his attitude at the meeting and subsequently has left on observers the clear impression that he has been out to “delay if not sabotage” the birth of the unified party at its foundation conference on October 11. At one stage, he even wanted it called only the “sponsoring conference.”

Mr. Chandra Shekhar was theoretically correct when he said some weeks back that the Opposition should seek to provide an alternative to the Congress-I and Mr. Rajiv Gandhi and not merely substitute. He, therefore, insisted that the proposed unified party and its policies and programmes were more important than Mr. Singh as the new leader. But this stand ignored certain practical realities in a country like India which continues to be soaked in feudal ethos. What ultimately counts here is the individual who leads a party and not the party and its policies and programmes. Nothing illustrates this more than the great success which the Congress achieved under the charismatic leadership first of Mahatma Gandhi, and thereafter under Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. The Janata Paty, too, won its great victory in 1977 because of JP and his leadership. Equally illustrative is the dismal failure of the CPI and CPM to make any great impact. The CPM has, no doubt, continued to achieve remarkable success in West Bengal. But the credit for this goes mainly to the personal popularity of its top leader, Mr. Jyoti Basu.

In retrospect, many wish that Mr. Singh had heeded the advice of some of his trusted friends and founded a new party, instead of taking on the sticky job of unifying the Opposition. He could have transformed the Jan Morcha from what Mr. V.C. Shukla smartly described as “a transit lounge” to a full-fledged party with a constitution and a policy. He could then have invited individual members of the Opposition as also intellectuals, academicians and professionals to join the new party. Alternatively, he could have invited the Opposition parties to merge with the Jan Morcha. In other words, he could (and should) have called the shots. There is little doubt that most of the rank and file of these parties would have gladly jumped on to his bandwagon, leaving their leaders high and dry. Mr. Singh could have thereby saved himself the trouble of having to knock time and again on the doors of Mr. Chandra Shekhar, Mr. Bahuguna and some others. In essence, he would have taken over the Opposition armies and forced their Generals either to surrender or take retirement.

Popular opinion increasingly favours a strong Opposition. Even those who continue to stand for Mr. Rajiv Gandhi feel that such an Opposition would be in the best interest of the ruling Congress-I and the country. Much ultimately will depend upon the quality of leadership Mr. Singh is able to provide and the success with which he and his supporters can neutralize the mischief of those who are unreconciled to his leadership and are certain to prevent him from functioning effectively. Bangalore could help resurrect JP‘s dream provided the Lok Nayak’s not remembered only ritually. He needs to be followed in practice and in action, in sharp and distressing contrast to the happenings after the Janata Government came to power in 1977. As we all know, JP died a sad and disillusioned person. Mr. Chandra Shekhar, Mr. Bahuguna and several others owe it to the Lok Nayak to give the country a credible alternative to the Congress-I, having failed to prevent the collapse of the Janata Government in 1979. It is time for them and other veterans to see the writing on the wall and, like Mr. Devi Lal, make way for the younger leaders --- and the new heroes. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Open Forum

New Delhi, 17 January 2024

Ram Temple Consecration

FAREWELL TO SECULARISM?

By Dhurjati Mukherjee 

The consecration of the Ram temple on January 22 may well have the country anoint a Hindu religious city in Ayodhya like the Vatican City of the Christians or Mecca of the Muslims, though it has always boasted of being secular. The Father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, or even his direct followers and philosophers could have never imagined that secularism would yield place to majoritarianism-- the transformation that has taken place in the last decade raising a lot of heat and dust. 

Apart from the allegation that the consecration of the temple has been timed just before the Lok Sabha elections, what is more surprising is the Prime Minister’s claim that God had chosen him as “an instrument to represent all Indians during the consecration”. This, in response to questions being raised over his pre-eminence at the event. Modi said he had begun his 11-day special observance as prescribed in the scriptures to “awaken divine consciousness” within himself in the lead-up to the consecration. However, he did not specify what he meant by special observance.  

Though the secular spirit is now being slowly vanishing from society, Mahatma Gandhi himself never went to a Hindu temple. Only once he visited the Meenakshi temple in Madurai in 1946 after the shrine was opened to Dalits to enter the premises. Though Gandhiji described himself as a Hindu, his writings bear testimony to his profound religious feelings, his understanding of Hinduism which was completely different from what we see today and his chosen mode of worship was inter-faith meetings, held in open grounds where Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Sikhs, Jains and Christians would pray together from verses of all scriptures. The Mahatma tried to show that India belonged to all faiths equally and propagated the essence of different religious faiths and doctrines.  

The Mahatma believed in the plurality of religions and abhorred any concept of the superiority of some races or religions. Stressing the need for equal respect for all religions, Gandhiji observed: “While I believe myself to be a Hindu, I know that I do not worship God in the same manner as any one or all of them”. This perception of the Mahatma cannot be said to be the majority view in the society today. The ruling dispensation has made us believe that we should be proud of our religion and in the process, denigrate other religions and the sentiments of those who do not subscribe to the Hindu line of thinking.  

It would be pertinent here to mention that just a few days back, over 3000 Christians from across the country registered a protest against community leaders’ culpable silence on minority rights and other grim realities while participating in the Prime Minister’s Christmas celebrations. In an open letter released recently, it stated: “The hard truth is that the Prime Minister and his government have consistently disregarded their constitutional mandate, be it to the minorities, the Adivasis, the Dalits, the backward castes, the farmers, labourers, migrants etc. hence their gratitude to the Prime Minister was not in our name”. 

The letter further emphasised that since 2014; in particular, Christians in India have been victims of continued attacks and vilification from members of the ruling establishment across the country. It was indeed distressing to note that the letter even referred to Christians and Christian schools which “have been hounded and harassed, their places of worship destroyed, they have been denied their ordinary rights as citizens and been subjected to denigration and demonisation.” 

If this happens to be the attitude of the Christian community, one can easily presume how the Muslims have been treated or, to use the right phrase humiliated, and what they think of the present government and its attitude towards the minorities. Obviously, the present genre of Muslims cannot be blamed for what their forefathers have done, and they have a right to life, being citizens of this democratic country. 

This brings us to the moot question i.e., while Ram is being worshipped and a grand temple being built in his honour, can the country claim to have introduced ‘ram rajya’ in India. The answer obviously is a big no. The ruling dispensation has been rather poor in matters of governance and the entire development process has largely ignored the lower echelons of society. The bottom tiers of society have been greatly affected as the disparity in society has widened. Not just income disparity between the rich and the poor but also between the urban and the rural class, between the formal and the informal sectors, between industrial workers and farmers etc. In the context of such development, all talks of India emerging the third largest economy by virtue of increased wealth of business tycoons such as Ambanis, Adanis and the Tatas appear meaningless. 

Truth, justice, equality are steadily vanishing from today’s society where violence, jealousy and hatred is manifest. Thus, while eulogising Ram without following the principles that he stood for and the way he ruled his kingdom smacks of nothing but hypocrisy. Moreover, unlike Swami Vivekananda, Lord Ram is just a mythological figure as the Anthropological Survey of India (ASI) did not find any scientific evidence of Ayodhya being his birthplace.  

Moreover, religion has always been regarded as a private affair, but the ruling dispensation has made it a political issue, obviously to reap benefits from the coming Lok Sabha elections due shortly. While the Congress has decided to boycott the inauguration on these grounds, the three Shankaracharyas have also decided to skip the event for being held against what they consider scripture-mandated norms. 

It may be mentioned here that Jawaharlal Nehru had adopted a stance, underlining the need for the State to keep its distance from religion. However, the current Prime Minister has projected himself as the sole guarantor of Hindu religion and his party, along with the RSS, to propagate and spread Hinduism in the world, though of a distorted version, much different from Vivekananda’s approach of unity of all religion. 

A section of political analysts and sociologists are quite surprised at the trajectory of the country’s political development to being a Hindu state. All the fanfare about the Ram temple is just to ensure that the BJP is assured of a landslide victory in the elections. And this is destined to happen as education and awareness has yet to trickle down to the masses in the backward areas of the country. They leave their destiny to the almighty.---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Political Diary

New Delhi, 16 January 2024

Speaker Speaks But…

DEPOLITICISE OFFICE

By Poonam I Kaushish 

Fatigued and bored of next week’s consecration of Lord Ram at Ayodhya ? Flip attention to the west coast where a first rate emotion-filled politico-drama is being enacted. Over Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Narwekar taking over 18 months to rule the legislative wing of Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Shinde with 40 MLAs was the Party and not Thackeray’s faction, but refused to disqualify his 16 legislators. 

But post decision, given the high stakes, this order has wider implications as both derive legitimacy from their association with late Babasaheb Thackeray and the Party unit. Undeniably, the Speaker’s ruling has lobbed the ball back to the Supreme Court as it is on slippery grounds when tested against the anti-defection law which is built around a Party, not the legislative unit. 

Narwekar maintained he could not ascertain which faction is the “real” Party since the Sena Constitution and leadership structure of 1993 did not provide conclusive answers and discounted Thackeray’s plea that Sena’s amended 2018 Constitution made him Party Chief. He also ignored Supreme Court’s ruling May which held the legislative unit has no existence independent of the Party as it fields candidates who contest on Party symbol. Perhaps he based it on Election Commission’s ruling which granted Shinde the Party symbol.  

This mess started in June 2022 when Shinde split with 40 MLAs dethroned the Thackeray-NCP-Congress led MVA and formed a Government with Fadnavis’s BJP. Thackeray, initiated disqualification proceedings and MVA appointed Dy Speaker obliged. Shinde challenged this in Supreme Court which stayed rebels disqualification till it heard the case in totality. It allowed Election Commission to decide which faction would lay claim to original Party. 

It is all very well for Shinde to claim Balasaheb’s legacy but it remains to be seen if he can win over cadres since the Sena’s inheritance is the late founder’s memory and the Party has been his extension. Can the new leadership set aside Balasaheb family’s pitch for his legacy?

At one level the battle should serve as a warning for individual/family-centric Parties to set their house in order and streamline functioning including holding organizational elections. At another, defection has become a part of politics. However, fractured verdicts do not give licence for a free-for-all politics of gaddi and gaddari which has become chalti ka nam gaddi, with no stops in sight!

The issue is not whether Thackeray’s Sena moves Supreme Court on Narwekar’s decision as the ruling has politics written all over it, neither that Parties have used Speaker’s post as lollipop to reward and oblige a Party worker. Or, whether a political appointee should continue to be arbitrator in matters pertaining to legislators’ defection? And that it has sounded another death knell of a Constitutional institution. But why Speaker is so important in the Constitutional scheme of things?

If a Party splits the Speaker decides whether it is a “split” or defection case. His ruling is binding. By this one act he can “destroy” a Party and facilitate another’s rule. Recall, Chandra Shekhar’s famous split which led to VP Singh’s Government fall.  Worse, its par for the course when MPs-MLAs-Speaker roles are inter-changed at a drop of a hat. Whereby, ruling Party Ministers, MPs and MLAs accept Speakership only to exploit the office for richer political dividends. Whereby, it is increasingly difficult to keep track of Minister’s becoming Speaker’s and vice versa. 

From second Speaker Ayyangar who became Bihar Governor on his term’s expiry to GS Dhillon and Manohar Joshi who switched roles from Ministers to Speakers, Balram Jhakar never concealed his identity as Congressman, Rabi Ray lived up to his Janata Party’s expectation and Shivraj Patil who post Speakership, lost the re-election, but was nominated by Congress to Rajya Sabha and anointed Home Minister. In UPA I Congress MP and Minister Meira Kumar became Lok Sabha Speaker in UPA II. Today eyebrows are not even raised.

All, conveniently forgetting the Speaker represents the House, its dignity, freedom and liberty. According to Erskine May, “The House has no Constitutional existence without him.” He has to ensure Opposition has its say even as Government has its way. His rulings and decisions can make or break the ruling Party. His casting vote can swing the balance either way. Expected to be above Party politics and not the ruling Party’s puppet.

Besides, his powers to use, misuse or abuse Anti-Defection Act which bestows the power of deciding whether a representative has become subject to disqualification, post their defection on the Speaker offering ample scope to him to exercise discretion and play political favourites, ignoring the letter and spirit of the Act.

The entirety of a Speaker’s decisions can also be an inducement for abuse. During Parliament’s winter session over 146 MPs were suspended while protesting or during the. monsoon session 2022 when 27 MPs were suspended. Ditto in 2016 when almost all DMK MLAs were evicted en masse from Tamil Nadu Assembly or the violence in erstwhile J&K Assembly resulting in PDP leaders hurling abuses and pedestal fan at the Speaker, raise crucial questions about our democracy’s health.

Such suspensions are increasingly becoming common across Parliament and State Assemblies, with a partisan Speaker in the vanguard of eroding India’s democratic character. Bringing things to such a pass whereby a Speaker seems to have acquired a “larger than life image and role” and has become the primus entre peri. 

A kind of a demi-God who can do no wrong and whose actions are unquestionable. Forgotten in the quintessential position, is the Speaker who is essentially servant of the House has fast become its master, thanks to rules of procedure. Highlighting, falling standards in conducting legislative business in Parliament and Assemblies  and the need to clearly define these.

Undoubtedly, the Speaker’s position is paradoxical. He contests election for Parliament or State Assembly and then for the post on a Party ticket, and yet is expected to conduct himself in a non-partisan manner, all the while being beholden to the Party for a ticket for the next election.

Confided a former Lok Sabha Speaker: “We are elected on Party tickets with Party funds. How can we claim independence? Moreover, even if we resign on becoming Speaker, we would still have to go back to the Party for sponsorship for next election.” 

Where does one go from here? Time to look afresh at the Speaker’s powers, depoliticize his office and promote neutrality. Under Westminster model, Speaker resigns from his Party on his election and is re-elected unopposed in subsequent elections in the House of Commons. Lok Sabha and Assembly Speaker’s impartiality is more important as he has more absolute powers than his House of Commons’s counterpart.

Succinctly, the Speaker is of the House, by the House and for the House. He has to place himself in a judge’s position, not become partisan so as to avoid unconscious bias for or against a particular view thus inspiring confidence in all sections of the House about his integrity and impartiality.

Late CPM MP Somnath Chatterrjee is a beacon. He refused to resign as Lok Sabha Speaker after Left withdrew support to UPA I Government over the Indo-US nuclear deal in July 2008. Saying Speaker’s office was a high Constitutional post and above politics. Like him we need to adopt the maxim: “Once a Speaker, always a Speaker.” What gives?----- INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)