The Hindu : National : Opposition leaders have "cordial" meeting with Speaker

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Wednesday, Mar 02, 2005

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National

Opposition leaders have "cordial" meeting with Speaker

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 1. An effort was made here this evening to iron out the rough spots in the Opposition's relations with the Chair in the Lok Sabha. At a meeting with leaders of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee the Speaker appealed to the Opposition to respect the Chair in the larger interest of the institution and uphold the dignity of the House. He also told them that they could approach him if they had any grievance against him.

Briefing mediapersons, the deputy leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha, V. K. Malhotra, said the meeting was very cordial. "We informed the Speaker that we respect him but feel that we are not given adequate time.'' Also, it was decided that the Opposition leaders and a representative of the Government would meet every morning in the Speaker's chamber for better coordination before the House met. The Government, however, it is learnt, is reluctant to commit the Parliamentary Affairs Minister to attend such a meeting every day, given his other preoccupations. It feels that if he fails to attend a meeting, it would be accused of going back on its commitment.

Mr. Malhotra claimed that the Speaker admitted that he should not have goaded the ruling benches on Saturday to bring a privilege motion against the Opposition as it walked out of the House during the presentation of the Railway budget. Besides Mr. Malhotra, other NDA members who attended the meeting were Anant Geethe and Prakash Paranjpe of the Shiv Sena — it was the latter's belligerent stance that drew the Speaker's ire on Saturday — B. C. Khanduri and Santosh Kumar Gangwar of the BJP, Prabhunath Singh of the Janata Dal (United), Braj Kishore Tripathi of the Biju Janata Dal, and P. C. Thomas of the Indian Federal Democratic Party.

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