Unruly Andhra MPs back,Speakers hands tied this time

The House witnessed four adjournments before the Chair called it a day at 3 pm.

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Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar had perhaps not factored this in when she suspended 12 members from Andhra Pradesh on August 23 under Rule 374(A). After having stayed away from the House for five consecutive sittings the maximum under the rule the members are back to their unruly self in the House,holding proceedings to ransom.

Going by the rules and the current ties between the ruling and opposition parties,the Speaker cannot do much this time as she cannot invoke the same rule again this session against the same members.

I name you under Rule 374(A). You may withdraw from the precincts of the House, Kumar had said while suspending the 12 members A Sai Prathap,N Kristappa,Anantha Venkatarami Reddy,L Rajagopal,M Sreenivasulu Reddy,M Venugopala Reddy,Aruna Kumar Vundavalli,K Narayan Rao,GV Harsha Kumar,K Bapiraju,Sabbam Hari and N Sivaprasad for stalling proceedings in the House.

On Friday,these members from the Congress and TDP were back in the House,shouting slogans against the Andhra bifurcation. The commotion in the well of the House consumed the business for the day. The sole exception was the statement of PM Manmohan Singh on the state of the economy. The House witnessed four adjournments before the Chair called it a day at 3 pm.

The casualties included a discussion on the Uttarakhand floods,the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill.

Should Kumar wish to suspend the members again to peacefully conduct proceedings during the rest of the session,she would find her hands tied,as Rule 374(A),which she had invoked,provides for suspension of the members named by her for a maximum of five sittings of the session.

The Rule says,…. in the event of a grave disorder occasioned by a member coming in to the well of the House or abusing the Rules of the House persistently and wilfully obstructing business by shouting slogans or otherwise,such member shall,on being named by the Speaker,stand automatically suspended from the service of the House for five consecutive sittings or the remainder of the session,whichever is less.

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The session is slated to continue till September 6. Now,it would only take the adoption of a motion by the House under Rule 374 to suspend the members for the rest of the session. A move to this effect had fallen through after being initiated by the parliamentary affairs minister due to resistance from opposition. There is no chance of the opposition BJP coming to the help of the government after the latest chill in their ties.