'Leaders are not elected to sit in dharna in Parliament', said President Pranab Mukherjee.
Highlights
- Daily parliament disruption unacceptable, said President Pranab Mukherjee
- The opposition marked 'black day' in parliament today over the cash ban
- The President said leaders are not elected to sit in dharna in parliament
As disruptions and adjournments threaten to wash out another session of parliament, President Pranab Mukherjee's strong rebuke today was clearly aimed at parliamentarians: "For God's sake, do your job. You are meant to transact business in Parliament."
The daily disruption of parliament is "not acceptable at all", the President said while delivering the Defence Estate Day lecture on electoral reforms.
Stalling parliament, he said, "means you are gagging the majority".
The winter session has been hamstrung by protests and adjournments with the opposition aggressively taking on the government on the notes ban announced on November 8 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On a month of the demonetisation drive today,
the opposition marked a "black day", wore black bands to parliament and protested near the iconic Gandhi statue in the parliament complex.
"Leaders are not elected to sit in
dharna in Parliament. You can sit for protests in other places. But you are meant to exercise your authority as a Lok Sabha member and do your job," said the President, who was among the country's most senior and respected parliamentarians before he took on the top job in 2012.
"If issues are not debated, not properly scrutinised in the floor the house, then I don't think our parliamentary system can be every effective.... Freedoms should not be misused by disruption. Only minorities come to the well and disrupt," he commented.
Yesterday, another veteran,
LK Advani, snapped in parliament and did not spare his own government as he told Minister Ananth Kumar in the house: "Who is running the house? Neither the Speaker, nor the minister..."