‘Won’t allow chanting of religious slogans in Parliament’: Speaker Om Birla
Newly elected Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla said on Wednesday that he would not allow a repeat of the chanting of religious slogans or the heckling that greeted some Opposition MPs when they were being sworn in on Tuesday. The pro tem speaker, Virendra Kumar, did the right thing by expunging the calls from treasury benches that confronted MPs including United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi and Trinamool Congress MPs, Birla said in an interview with HT. Some Trinamool MPs responded with chants of their own in response to the slogans from the treasury benches. “I don’t think Parliament is the place for sloganeering, for showing placards, or for coming to the well. There is a road for that where they can go and demonstrate. Whatever people want to say here, whatever allegations they have, however they want to attack the government they can, but they can’t come to the gallery and do all this,’’ Birla said after his unanimous election as speaker of the 17th Lok Sabha.
