After the logjam in Rajya Sabha was broken at an all-party meet, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien today said the House cannot be run on rules but by political consensus and asked members to adopt self restraint and not cross the benchmarks or break their oath.
"It is not rules, it is actually the self restraint of members, responsibility of members. You cannot run the House by rules only. The House is run by political consensus and self restraint of the members and your adherence to democratic norms," he told reporters after the all-party meeting convened by Chairman Hamid Ansari.
He lauded the Chairman's initiative of convening the all-party meeting to end the logjam and said the step has came at an "appropriate time" as there are three more days left and members agreed to pass six bills and dispose of three more, besides holding discussions on important issues.
Ansari convened an all-party meet today attended by leaders of various parties where it was decided to end the logjam with members sitting for extra time to dispose of pending legislations and take up important discussions in Rajya Sabha, which has not been functioning for past few days.
Asked if the rules need to be amended to give more powers to the Chairman, the deputy chairman said, "Even if you amend the rules, the same thing can happen. I don't think the amendment of the rules is the final solution. But that will also help."
Kurien, however, refused to give a direct reply on whether rules should be amended or not. "I don't want to comment. But there is a feeling, some suggestions are there. Infact, hon'ble chairman himself once suggested amendment of the rules. I think it may be taken up," he said.
Asked if the weapon of suspending a member be given to the Chair, he said, "I don't want to say that. I am only saying the present position. There is a feeling, including some journalists say why not you suspend these members and proceed. In Rajya Sabha rule book there is no such procedure. In Lok Sabha Hon'ble can do without a motion.
"Here, Hon'ble chairman or I can do only if a motion is moved and passed in the House. And going by the composition of the House, do you think such a motion will be passed here. So we are trying our best to run the house...." he said.
Kurien said "we were trying our best to run the House every day" and all weapons at their disposal like persuasion, appealing, requesting and even cajoling were used.
Ansari had at a meeting of the Rules Committee of the Upper House reportedly sought change of rules to allow more powers to the Chair to suspend members creating frequent disruptions and hamper its functioning.
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"We tried our best and Rajya Sabha rules do not permit the chairman to suspend these members unless a motion is passed in the House. You see the composition of the House, do you think a motion if moved will get passed. If a motion is passed to suspend these members, yes we could have done it," Kurien said.
"We tried our best. Chairman tried his best. He requested, he appealed, you know. Then he took the extra step of calling the meeting. And he has done it at the appropriate time. There are three more days and to pass these non controversial bills, these three days are enough to pass these bills and he has this step at the appropriate time," he said.
Kurien brushed aside allegations that the Chair did not do enough to let the House function and said strictly speaking, it was upto the government and opposition to run the House and take a decision.
"Chairman has taken an extra step and because all parties agreed that a decision was arrived at. Chairman is only taking an initiative, it depends on the parties. Even if we take 100 meetings, it may not happen. In a democracy, we will have to preside. Actually Chairman is only umpire," he said.
Asked if today's all-party meet had anything to do with Prime Minister's meeting with Ansari yesterday, he said, "How do I now what happened, what transpired. I'm not privy to that information."
On disruptions caused by opposition members, he said, "I do not approve of any of this. It is a violation of the oath."
He said coming to the well and shouting slogans and blocking business of the House is a violation of the oath which members have taken.
"They have taken an oath before becoming a member of parliament. It is nothing but a violation of the oath, in my view which I have expressed. But then it is democracy, it is not a dictatorship. Members have the right to behave in the way they want. There should be a benchmark, that benchmark is not there. They may have justifiable reasons, I am not blaming them also.
"The shouting members, they may have according to them justifiable reason in their perspective, but in somebody or in my perspective there may not be justifiable reason. But democracy means it is the will of everybody that will survive. My view cannot be thrust upon anybody. It is democracy at work, but when democracy is at work, there should be benchmark at work.
"Sometimes, we feel that benchmark is the violator. There should be a line of demarcation between what to do and what not to do. But that line has become blurred and they cross that line," he said.
Asked about the GST bill, he said "GST did not come up for discussion because perhaps there is no consensus over that.
