Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday told Human Resources Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal not to take on the job of the Speaker.
The ‘direction’ came after the Minister, while speaking in Parliament, gestured and allowed Supriya Sule of the Nationalist Congress Party, to seek clarification on his speech about the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Bill, 2019.
While the Minister sat down, ‘allowing’ Ms. Sule to speak, the Speaker stopped the MP, and addressing Mr. Pokhriyal said: “I would advise all MPs to please refrain from granting permission to each other to speak. This is the job of the Speaker. Kindly refrain from doing this.”
Intervenes again
A few minutes later, the Speaker had to intervene for order in the House again when, right after the Bill was unanimously passed, most MPs left their seats and rushed to congratulate Mr. Pokhriyal, and subsequently also to leave the House at 6 p.m.
The Speaker, however, extended the session by half an hour, allowing Zero Hour, and the commotion continued, while Congress MP Shashi Tharoor got up to speak on data leakages and the lack of data protection.
The Speaker immediately called for order and asked the members to maintain order in the House.
He also directed the members not to head to the Speaker’s podium and restrict themselves to the table to hand over any communication to him. “I assure you, it will all reach me in its own time,” he said.
MP sings
Earlier in day, the house saw MP Ravi Kishan singing a song in his native language to draw attention to his demand for including Bhojpuri in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, the MP said: “Bhojpuri is spoken by a large section of the people of the country. It is time we give it its due recognition.”
However, Mr. Birla interrupted him immediately and asked him to sing later. The actor-singer countered him by saying the song and his singing were only meant to demonstrate the sweetness of the language.
