It was a very sad and unfortunate spectacle to see the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar livid with rage against Assembly speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha yesterday on the floor of the House. Nitish Kumar is known for being a sober politician but the way he behaved with Speaker Shri Sinha was reprehensible, highly unbecoming of the leader of the house and deserves to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. In fact, after the verbal humiliation that was heaped on him by the leader of the house, Shri Sinha has lost all moral authority to continue in the post he is holding. If he has even an iota of self-respect, he must tender his resignation from the post of the Speaker. It is being reported that terribly hurt by the insult, he did not attend the house today.
Why was Nitish Kumar so provoked and enraged that he forgot the basic courtesy towards the Speaker and started openly fulminating against him despite many requests from him to calm down and listen to him? Nobody knows the exact reason for losing his control, but it is certain that Nitish Kumar has done irreparable damage to the institution of the Speaker. Shri Kumar was visibly shivering with rage against the Speaker but that is not done in a democratic set-up. Even if Shri Nitish Kumar had any grievance against Shri Sinha, he should have privately discussed the issue in the chamber of the Speaker and resolved the same. In fact, in Parliamentary democracy, the Speaker of either the Lok Sabha or assemblies is the highest authority of the house as he/ she presides over the meetings and is the custodian of the House. The highest respect must be
shown towards any Presiding Officers even if he/she is not the Speaker or Chairperson of the House. Anybody, howsoever high and mighty he/she may be is expected to show respect to the post of the Speaker/ Chairperson. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha is elected under Article 93, and he/she can be removed by resolution under Article 94 of the Constitution. Similarly, the Speaker of the Assembly is elected under Article 178 of the Constitution of India and can be removed by resolution under Article 179 of the Constitution.
The Constitution provides the highest dignity to the office of the Speaker. So much so, the Speaker can haul up even the judges of the High Court and the Supreme Court if any impeachment proceeding is initiated against the Justices. The speaker cannot be summoned by any court of law. The historic cases of ‘Keshav Singh of UP Assembly’ or ‘Pandit MSM Sharma versus Sri Krishna Sinha and another’ have clearly delineated the powers and privileges of the Speaker. In the recent past the then Speaker of the Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee had refused to even accept the notice of the Supreme Court in the petition filed in the Raja Ram Pal Sigh case related to the disqualification of some MPs. Thus, the primacy of the office of the Speaker in the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies is undisputed and beyond any reproach.
It is very strange that Nitish Kumar who has a very long parliamentary career was yesterday behaving with an Assembly speaker like a cheap and rowdy politician. The least that he can do now is to restore the dignity to the office of the Speaker by publicly apologising to the Speaker on the floor of the house and instead of washing the dirty linens against any constitutional authority, he must set an example of equanimity by paying respect to them at least in public.