With the Opposition Congress stalling the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly during the Budget session, Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri told the Congress members not to use the Assembly as a platform to settle political scores.
At a press conference here on Thursday, Mr. Kageri expressed displeasure over the manner in which the Opposition stalled the debate on the State Budget, drinking water, electricity, and on other Bills, and said it was natural that political parties have divergent views on matters in democracy. But it was not a good precedence to use the House for sledging on political issues, he said.
The Congress stalled the debate on the Budget seeking a probe monitored by the Karnataka High Court Chief Justice into the CD scandal in which the former Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi is accused of sexually exploiting a woman by promising a government job.
One party, by stalling the business of the House, also curtailed the right of debate of other members. “I am pained by the conduct of the Opposition,” he said. If this situation continued, parliamentary debates would reach their worst situations. During the Congress dharna, the Speaker said the House belonged to all the 225 members and not just to members of the Opposition parties.
Disturbing the conduct of the House by staging dharnas was against the spirit of the Constitution, and people who voted legislators, too, would not accept it in democracy. The Opposition’s duty was providing constructive suggestions on the functioning of the government, the Speaker said.
On the Congress complaint related to Health and Family Welfare Minister K. Sudhakar’s challenge to all MLAs to take “monogamy test”, he said he would look into it and take appropriate action.
The Congress had not allowed the Assembly to debate on ‘one nation, one election’ initiated by the Speaker on March 4 and 5, claiming that the ruling BJP had been implementing the “RSS agenda”.
