Joining issues with the British delegation in Malaysia, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Friday asserted that no "deal" was made to support Malaysia's candidature to a senior post in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association election for which is to be held tomorrow.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Wednesday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could undertake a foreign visit during the Parliament session, but other ministers should not go abroad without his permission.
Breaking his silence, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Friday ruled out quitting and hit out at the Communist Party of India Marxist for demanding his resignation, saying it cannot give any direction to him in his Constitutional office."I have consciously taken the principled decision to uphold the Constitution of India at the risk of being unjustifiably dubbed as anti-party," he said in a five-page statement.
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who has so far maintained silence about his expulsion from the Communist Party of India Marxist, is planning to write a letter to party General Secretary Prakash Karat, according to sources.
Singh, who drove to Chatterjee's residence in New Delhi, did not speak to the waiting media persons after the meeting that lasted about 10 minutes.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh on Tuesday alleged that six Lok Sabha Members of Parliament from his party were being forcibly kept inside the Uttar Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi ahead of the crucial trust vote and charged Bahujan Samaj Party chief Minister Mayawati with playing coercive politics.Talking to newsmen before the second and final day of the special session of the Lok Sabha, Singh said one or two of them might be rebels from his party.
'Why on earth should I apologise? What did I do? I have been like this all my life. I only listen to my inner voice and do what I feel is right. I am a braveheart and am never scared. I have always swum against the tide and have never stooped,' Marxist stormy petrel Subhas Chakraborty lets fly
Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat on Saturday said his party has not taken any decision yet to ask Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to quit office. "No, that is not correct. There is no such decision as yet," Karat told PTI over phone when asked whether the party has asked Chatterjee to step down and that he would quit on Monday.
Outgoing Speaker Somnath Chatterjee expressed concern about the manner in which money was flaunted by some MPs during the Trust Vote on July 23rd last year to save the government.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said the office of Lok Sabha Speaker has been "truly elevated and dignified" by Somnath Chatterjee, who set himself as a "role model".
President Pratibha Patil, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and several other leaders greeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who turned 75 on Wednesday.
The Speaker informed the House that he was accepting Sidhu's resignation with effect from Monday.
"You do not deserve one paisa of public money," an angry Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said as members of several political parties stormed the Well of Lok Sabha raising a spate of issues and disrupted Question Hour.
The right to recall as a strategy for enforcing greater accountability of Parliamentarians is expected to come up for discussion in the Commonwealth conference.
Pranab Mukherjee's speech was so boring that half of the Treasury benches were found napping. Newsmen peeped from the Press Gallery to see the mood of the MPs.
The presentation of the Interim General Budget for 2009-10 was on Monday interrupted briefly as the Lok Sabha adjourned after JD(S) member M P Veerendrakumar complained of uneasiness.
The external affairs ministry had pleaded that in view of the unqualified apology tendered by him, the matter be closed.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee inaugurated the company's year-long platinum jubilee celebrations on Wednesday.
Says rules will be implemented strictly next time
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Monday said that his intention was 'not to punish anybody per se' while proceeding against 32 opposition Members of Parliament for their disorderly conduct.Chatterjee said that he told the leaders that the MPs could raise any issue they like. "You will embarrass the government, but it is not the duty of the Speaker to extricate the government from any problem or to save the government. Let the govt go if they have no majority," Chatterjee said.
Announcing this, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee thanked the members for their cooperation in passing the Finance Bill 2008, but regretted that 28 hours and 30 minutes were lost due to interruptions and forced adjournments. However, he also noted that the House sat for an extra 36 hours and 38 minutes to compensate for the loss.
The meeting saw Opposition agreeing to undertake orderly behaviour in the House and in turn Chatterjee withdrawing the controversial reference of the MPs, mostly from the BJP- led National Democratic Alliance, to the Committee, sources said. An announcement on the issue is expected when the House reassembles at 14.00 hours. "Wait till two," the Speaker said, when reporters asked him about the outcome of the meeting.
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has called for an all-party meeting to resolve the impasse over the privilege notice issue.
"Punishment is not the central theme. There is no pre-conceived idea whether the punishment should be meted out or not," Lok Sabha Privileges Committee Chairman V Kishore Chandra Deo told PTI. Deo said the very fact that Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has referred the issue to the committee rather than taking action on his own showed that he wanted to sort out the matter by going to the root.
Protest in the House that day was prompted by the National Democratic Alliance agitation against price rise, which found its echo in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha after the opposition members formed a human chain outside Parliament complex to denounce the government's failure to check the price spiral.
A high-level Indian parliamentary delegation, headed by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, arrived in Bahrain on Thursday.
''I strongly denounce the way you are conducting yourself. It is shameful and disgusting behaviour,'' Chatterjee told BSP member Brajesh Pathak, who continued to agressively counter Union Fertilizer Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, despite repeated requests from the Chair to resume his seat. But Pathak refused to listen to the Chair, prompting Chatterjee to remark: ''Ham yeh hone nahin deyenge... Hamko hataiye yahan se .
Speaker urges unambiguity in rule-making
The Enquiry Committee that went into the alleged cash-for-vote scam during the July 22 trust vote would be presenting its report to Lok Sabha on Thursday.
"Show respect to each other," was another comment during the pandemonium triggered by an issue raised by Biju Janata Dal member Braj Kishore Tripathi about alleged security rules violation during Congress lawmaker Rahul Gandhi's visit to Orissa last week. The Speaker also made it clear that it was he would 'decide what is relevant and what not'.
The four TRS MPs -- Vinod Kumar, Ravindra Naik and T Madhusudan Reddy -- submitted their resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. The TRS chief had announced on Sunday at a rally in New Delhi that MPs of his party will tender their resignation from the Lok Sabha, as the Congress with whom it fought elections on the issue, had ditched it after coming to power.
"You are working over time to finish off democracy," a visibly angry Speaker Somnath Chatterjee castigated members in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The committee will inquire into cases of misconduct of members of Lok Sabha, including misuse of parliamentary privileges and facilities by them and submit its report within the month.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat have been keeping a low profile, but their interest for the presidential nomination has been debated upon by the media.
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, nearly cried in the Lok Sabha, when Left party leaders Basudev Acharya and Gurudas Das Gupta attacked him by quoting rules for not allowing them to speak after he had rejected the no confidence motion against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The motion was moved by the Left parties after Dr Singh refused to report to the House.
The Lok Sabha was adjounred till 1500 hours while the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day.
The suspended Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian was arrested while trying to take a woman to Canada on his wife's passport after allegedly striking a deal of Rs 27 lakh with her through a travel agent.
An all party meeting will be convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee next week to discuss the issue of alleged misconduct of members in the backdrop of the human trafficking case.
Senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra told reporters before the start of an all-party meeting with Speaker Somnath Chatterjee that there should be uniformity while dealing with wrongdoings by MPs.
The resolution, introduced by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, said the apex court verdict affects the rights of Parliament.
