The Hindu : Lalji Tandon takes umbrage at tirade against U.P. Speaker

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 09, 2003

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Lalji Tandon takes umbrage at tirade against U.P. Speaker

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW, FEB. 8. The Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party legislature group leader, Lalji Tandon, today disapproved of the manner in which the leader of the Opposition, Azam Khan, had denigrated the Speaker, Kesrinath Tripathi, while giving his notice to express his lack of confidence in Mr. Tripathi on Friday. The language Mr. Khan had used for the Speaker was unbecoming of him and Mr. Khan must be condemned for that, Mr. Tandon said.

Talking to newspersons at his party headquarters here, the BJP leader profusely praised the Speaker for the high democratic values cherished by him and said his services to the Assembly would be remembered for a long time to come. An attack on him was an attack on a constitutional institution. This must be condemned, he said.

Mr. Tandon found the notice given by Mr. Khan against all rules.

While any member of the Assembly was free to give such a notice, that could be done only when the Assembly had been summoned to meet.

In the present case, the State Assembly had still not been called for a session.

He rejected the allegations of "bias'' levelled against the Speaker by the Samajwadi Party leaders saying that while Mr. Tripathi had taken all necessary steps to examine the legality of the split in the Congress and later merger of the breakaway group in the BSP, during the rule of the Samajwadi Party all norms had been given a good-bye while engineering defections in opposition parties.

It was during the Chief Ministership of Mulayam Singh Yadav that the then Speaker had completed the formalities of splitting the Communist Party of India and the Janata Dal without going into any technicalities.

The CPI had been split and the merger of the splinter group with the SP announced the same day.

The same was done in the case of Janata Dal too. A member of his own party had been physically dragged to the opposition benches in the Assembly in full view of the members.

All appeals by his party to disqualify this member under the Anti-Defection Act had been in vain.

Mr. Tandon objected to threats held out by the Samajwadi Party to take to the streets in protest against the change of loyalty by Congress legislators. The threat only meant that the SP had lost all faith in democracy, he added.

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Lalji Tandon takes umbrage at tirade against U.P. Speaker