President Mukherjee to MPs: 'For God sake, do your job'

Taking strong exception to the way the Winter Session of Parliament is proceedings, President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday asked lawmakers to do their jobs i.e. to transact business in the House.

"For God's sake, do your job. You are meant to transact business in Parliament," he said.

The daily disruption of Parliament is "not acceptable at all", the President said while delivering the Defence Estate Day lecture on electoral reforms.

About the ongoing logjam in Parliament, he said, "Means you are gagging the majority".

The President said lawmakers must be aware of the fact that Parliament is in session for only a few weeks in a year.

The winter session has been restricted 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.

President Mukherjee said "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."

"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 added.

Yesterday, Political veteran, LK Advani, snapped in parliament and criticized his own government as he told Minister Ananth Kumar in the house, "Who is running the house? Neither the Speaker, nor the minister..."

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.

Proceedings in the Lok Sabha were disrupted for the 15th consecutive day today as the Opposition continued to engage in sloganeering demanding a debate on demonetisation under a rule that entails voting.

As soon as the House assembled, the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge wanted to raise an issue but Speaker Sumitra Mahajan did not allow him to and started Question Hour.

This prompted members belonging to the Congress, Trinamool Congress and theLeft parties to rush into the Well demanding a discussion on the scrapping of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes.