Today, according to a tweet by a journalist, Rajya Sabha Speaker Venkaiah Naidu referred to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah as “Amit Bhai” while the house was in session.
Is it ok for the Rajya Sabha Chairman to refer to BJP Chief as “Amit Bhai” ?
— Sonal Mehrotra Kapoor (@Sonal_MK) August 1, 2018
While the act may prima facie seem innocuous, it nevertheless raises doubts about whether the Speaker may be favourable towards certain members of the house, especially those of the BJP, the party he has been a member of till August 2017, before he accepted the post of the Vice President of India, and consequently, the ex-officio Speaker of the Rajya Sabha.
In both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, the Speakers are trusted with the task of not just maintaining discipline in the House, but also with the responsibility to ensure that the proceedings are carried out in accordance with the rules and procedures. Hence, it is important that they remain impartial.
But the conduct of the Speakers in both houses of the Indian Parliament hints otherwise.
In February this year, opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha had staged a boycott of the Rajya Sabha proceedings, protesting bias on the part of Naidu. They claimed that their voice was being muzzled, according to an Indian Express report.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha had said, “During the Zero Hour, we are supposed to raise matters of public importance. At times, it is not possible to give prior notice. Some developments take place late evening and we are not allowed to speak. So we have boycotted the House for today to oppose this bias.”
MPs of the INC, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, Aam Aadmi Party, and CPI staged a united boycott because they too were not allowed by Naidu to speak on important matters.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has been accused of being partial, multiple times in the past four years. During the no-confidence motion debate last month, Mahajan was criticised by many for allotting less time, sometimes as less as one single minute, to parties that have fewer seats in Parliament.
Earlier, Mahajan has also been called out for not following house rules, most notably when she allowed the AADHAAR Bill to be categorised as a money bill, which meant the bill would not go to Rajya Sabha for approval.