Democracy does not allow you to do what you want: Speaker

Accusing the Congress of disrupting parliamentary proceedings "without any issues", Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan has said that "democracy does not mean you do what you want to".

"There were no issues. the Congress always said they (the ministers) should first resign and then they will have a debate. This should not have happened," Mahajan said in an interview to India Today TV news channel.

"We are a democracy, but it does not mean you do what you want to," she said.

The Lok Sabha speaker, however, said she was not in favour of punishing the members.

Asked whether she thinks unruly member should be punished harder, she replied in the negative.

"Punishment is not the only way. The speaker is not there to punish the MPs. He or she is there to facilitate the house," she said, adding that she would have taken the same decision even against BJP members had they been behaving the way the Congress parliamentarians behaved in the house.

"Why not? If they do such a thing, I would (suspend them too)," she said.

Mahajan said she desired to begin a practice where nobody came to the well of the house and nobody carried placards.

"I hope and pray that I don't have to suspend anybody from the house (again)," Mahajan added.

The speaker also suggested that there should be a detailed discussion on how the country's democracy functioned.

On how she felt after suspending 25 Congress members and the opposition party's leaders and workers agitating in front of her residence, she said she did not get upset.

"I did not get upset; rather I felt bad (that this should not have happened)," she said, adding that she was hopeful that better sense would prevail and the MPs and other concerned would help strengthen democracy in the country.