Speaker’s corner

It would take extraordinary perseverance to attempt to reason with Mamata Banerjee. The Calcuttan is always in such shrill opposition mode that contextual nuances and parliamentary proprieties are waved away with firm swishes of her trademark cotton saris. So, alas, it was on Tuesday when she tried to personalise the current impasse in Lok Sabha on the opposition’s protest against “tainted” ministers in the Manmohan Singh government. Banerjee was clearly upset that Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had adjourned the House before she could have a go at condemning the induction of chargesheeted MPs as Union ministers. Deflected from the original targets of her indignation, she zeroed in on her more enduring obsession, the communists. They are Stalinists, she said, and “Advaniji”, as leader of the opposition, had erred in agreeing to the unanimous election of one among their ranks as the presiding officer of the Lok Sabha.

Sorry, Didi, this is not on. Certainly, Chatterjee will have to perfect the transition from the front benches of the Lower House to the high chair. He will have to deploy all his guile and reservoirs of personal goodwill accumulated over a long stint as MP to defuse the current crisis, and many more that will no doubt punctuate his term. He will have to lead the way in finding a way to balance the need to transact scheduled business with the opposition’s demands — namely, to interrogate the treasury benches. There are, however, certain things he cannot — and must not — be burdened with. For instance, political antecedents. The speaker is an elected member of Lok Sabha, so he is bound to have political affiliations. But once elected to the post, political motive must not insinuated. It creates unnecessary controversy, and it compromises his office. Banerjee is free to carry on her crusade against the communists. She is after all now the lone MP of her once formidable Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. But let her keep the speaker out of it.

In addition, by regretting the unanimous election of the speaker, she is sullying a longstanding parliamentary tradition. The choice of speaker is rightly left to the ruling party/alliance and that of his deputy to the opposition. It prevents acrimony where none need exist, and it honours the people’s mandate. Let’s keep it that way.