New Delhi, Nov 16 (Inditop.com) As parliament convenes for its winter session Nov 19, Meira Kumar, India’s first woman speaker of the Lok Sabha, says she is “concerned” about what people in the visitors’ gallery as well as outside think when they witness rampant disorder in the house.
“What I am absolutely concerned about is what our people think. Because they are the voters. They have to run this democracy. They are directly connected with it,” Meira Kumar, 64, told Inditop in an interview at her residence.
She wonders why MPs get so agitated, but also realises there is lot of “pressure” on them.
“I actually wanted to know why sometimes members get agitated. Each honourable member represents about 10-12 lakh (1-1.2 million) people. Nowhere in any other parliamentary democracy in the world are the members representing such a number.”
At the same time, she also looks at the issue from their point of view. “There is so much demand from them. There is so much pressure on them. And not only for the work of their constituents but also social issues and international affairs.
“But whenever I have requested the honourable members to maintain the house order, they have.”
Meira Kumar – who was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1985 and became the surprise choice as the first woman speaker of the country when the 15th Lok Sabha convened after the May general elections – wants to encourage the “silent ones” to speak.
“I am also for encouraging the silent ones who, sitting at the back, listen to everything. Maybe they sometimes feel inhibited.
“And if I do not do it initially, the whole five years they will be sitting at the back. They need to be encouraged. They will speak up. I keep on saying, ‘why don’t you speak up?'” Meira Kumar, who became speaker on June 3 this year, said.
She said they all were good orators “because unless you speak for the state and talk to your constituents, they will not vote for you”.
“Maybe they are not comfortable in a language which is not their own, could be that, I think they will all make it.”
She also called Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who opts to sit on the back bench with his younger colleagues, “a very bright young man”.
The diplomat-turned-politician said parliamentary democracy was the best for India and was “something really very, very useful for the management, for the running of a country”.
The speaker said foreign political representatives who meet her have often expressed “wonder as to how we manage elections at regular intervals, sometimes even before mid-term elections”.
“We enjoy great respect. We enjoy great stature. So far as parliamentary democracy is concerned, they say this is the largest parliamentary democracy in the world. We are able to do it very peacefully and change governments. It’s functioning and it is a wonder for all of them,” the speaker said.
Meira Kumar said her experience in handling the house so far has been “encouraging and also very positive”.
She is the first woman to hold the prestigious post, but said as speaker she could not “really push” the pending Women’s Reservation Bill.
“I can of course bring or maintain order when it comes to the house, but beyond that it is for the government and the political parties to form a consensus on it,” she said.
