Speaker Somnathda

It has been some time since the Lok Sabha has had an erudite speaker. The quintessential bhadralok turned Marxist, Somnath Chatterjee may appear an unlikely speaker, but he could bring new gravitas to the job. True, such is the nature of the job, that even a streetsmart politician like Manohar Joshi evolved into the very picture of sobriety, once he found himself in the Speaker’s chair!

As the winner of the Best Parliamentarian award, Chatterjee’s knowledge of the Constitution is matched only by his familiarity with Shakhder’s tome on parliamentary conduct. For someone who has spent his youth wanting to overthrow the “bourgeois democratic” system, there is sweet irony in Chatterjee now having to uphold the dignity of the legislature! Chatterjee must learn to be extremely patient in securing the cooperation of all sections of the House to ensure that the business of the House is completed. The unruly behaviour by MPs, a lack of regard for decorum and, more importantly, the valuable time and money of the tax-payer, have often brought the House into disrepute. In a contentious democracy like ours, it is only natural that parliamentary proceedings reflect the diversity of public opinion. The point, however, is that it is possible to express that opinion with dignity and decency. At a time when a new generation of MPs — many of them first-timers and many below 30 — comes into Parliament, Chatterjee has a special role as an elder statesman who has been in Parliament for half a century to set the tone of the House and guide the members into acceptable modes of conduct.

The citizen pays for every minute that an MP spends in Parliament. If those precious minutes go into walk-outs and talk-ins that end up producing a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing, the voter is none the better off. An effective Speaker can take the House along and generate adequate consensus at least on time management, if not on the outcome of the time spent. Chatterjee has his work cut out for him and a mix of his bhadralok manners and his trade union bluster should see him through.