Speaker should be above politics: Balayogi

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MAY 30. The 63rd Conference of the Presiding Officers of Legislative Bodies began here today with the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr. G.M.C. Balayogi's call to keep the office of the Speaker above politics to ensure impartial discharge of duties.

Inaugurating the conference, Mr. Balayogi said the Speaker's isolation and guaranteed aloofness from the mainstream of political life would enhance the dignity of his office and enable members to look to him and respect him as the impartial protector and guarantor of their rights and privileges.

The conference is being attended by the Presiding Officers, their Deputies and the Secretaries from 28 State Assemblies and Councils. Apart from a symposium on coalition politics, issues like dual membership of Parliament and/or the State Legislatures, the relationship between the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary, the office of the Speaker in a multi-party system and the future pattern of the Presiding Officers' conference, will be discussed during the four-day conference.

Emphasising the need for institutional safeguards to protect the independence and objectivity of the Speaker's office, Mr. Balayogi said it was felt in some quarters that the conventions associated with our democratic functioning did not provide specifically for conditions to facilitate the independent and politically neutral functioning of the Presiding Officer.

The Speaker's office, which was at the core of the legislative functioning, had been subjected to a great degree of strain due to the fast-changing political scenario in the country, he added.

The Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker, Mrs. K. Pratibha Bharathi, said the supreme task of the Presiding Officer should be to preserve the independence and impartiality of the Chair.

Earlier, the conference condoled the death of the former President and former Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, and a few other Presiding Officers of State Assemblies and Legislative Councils.

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