Deshmukh wants Padma awards for builders too

BSP member Brajesh Pathak has been singled out for preventing Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan from replying to a question during Question Hour on April 24. Ironically, Pathak himself is a member of the Privileges Committee. The NDA members find themselves on the receiving end for storming the well and shouting slogans the same day against inflation.

The other members named are Kishan Singh Sangwan, Mahavir Bhagora, Kiran Maheshwari, Ashok Pradhan, Nand Kumar Sai, Shrichand Kriplani, Shahnawaz Hussain, Vijayendra Pal Singh, Ganesh Singh, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Bhanwar Singh Dangawas, Virendra Kumar, Kharabela Swain, Ram Singh Kaswan, Subhash Maharia, Sushila Bangaru Laxman, Dharmendra Pradhan, P S Gadhavi, Ram Swaroop Koli, Sukhdeo Paswan, Ram Krishna Kusmaria, Karuna Shukla and Nandkumar Singh Chauhan, all of the BJP, Chandrakant Khaire and Kalpana Narhire of the Shiv Sena, P P Koya of JDU, Tathagat Satpathy of BJD, Ratan Singh Ajnala, Paramjit Kaur Gulshan, Sharanjit Singh Dhillon and Sukhdev Singh Libra of the Shiromani Akali Dal.

Vijayendra Pal Singh is a member of the Ethics Committee of the House, who was last in the news for having used a photo copy of a Parliament car sticker rather than the original. Sources said a similar action awaits those members who disrupted Question Hour on the issue of Union Minister T R Baalu on April 28.

Though Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Mohammad Ansari has also referred cases of unruly behaviour of MPs to the Privileges Committee of the Upper House, the issue of reference is different. Ansari has forwarded to the committee complaints of several members who have alleged a violation of their privilege to ask questions by the members causing disruption of proceedings. This being a larger issue, sources in the Rajya Sabha Privileges Committee said the panel has resolved to seek opinions of wider sections on the matter. The Speaker has referred a very limited issue to the Lok Sabha committee, which is supposed to examine if the members8217; conduct was disorderly.

The Speaker8217;s action comes after a week full of warnings to members across the board. The members who have been warned on different occasions hail from various parties8212;SP for slogan-shouting over price-rise, BSP members for unruly conduct over the issue of drought in Bundelkhand and the Left for trooping into the aisle against an alleged discrimination against Kerala in foodgrain allocation.

As of now, the Speaker appears to send a signal across that a disorderly conduct on the part of members is not acceptable. As for any punitive measure, given the high number of MPs and the parties involved, it may be an uphill task.