30 PARLIAMENTARIAN l juLy 2019
Tandon who had offered to resign
when an opposition MLA disputed his
ruling. His logic was - Speaker’s role
has to be running the house
impartially. If even a single member
loses faith in me, morally I lose the
right to be in chair. It was because of
such qualities that he was bestowed
with the title - Rajarshi.
First Lok Sabha Speaker Mavalankar
too was one such individual who
maintained the stature of the Speaker.
Before taking over the job, he was
Speaker of the constituent assembly as
well. He had in fact, taken up his first
legislative assignment as Speaker only
as presiding officer of Bombay
Legislative Assembly. He continued to
preside the Lok Sabha till he breathed
last in 1956.
In the bicameral parliamentary
structure that we have inherited from
the British, Speaker’s post in the most
sanctimonious one. Upon his election
as Speaker, the person resigns from his
parent party and continues as an
independent member. Even in the next
general elections, no party fields a
candidate against him to ensure that
he is elected unopposed. And he
continues in the job till he willingly
relinquishes it. This is done to preserve
his impartiality, dignity and integrity.
It is a tradition that is followed till day.
However, we tweaked the tradition.
In 1951 and 1953, the Conference of
Presiding Officers of legislatures in
India passed a resolution for the
adoption of the British Convention.
Mavalankar tried to create a consensus
among political parties on adopting
this British convention but was unable
to make much headway.
The 1954 decision of the Working
Committee of Congress in response to
Mavalankar’s attempts sealed the fate
of the issue. It stated, “The Working
Committee considered Shri G VMavalankar’s letter for establishing a
convention for the uncontested
election of Speakers and felt that this
was not a feasible proposition for the
present in view of other political
parties being involved in the question.”nehru vision
With no security in the continuity of
office, the Speaker is dependent on his
or her political party for reelection.
This makes the Speaker susceptible to
pulls and pressures from his political
party in the conduct of the proceedings
of the Lok Sabha.
Nehru succinctly described this
aspect of the Speaker’s responsibilityin 1948. At the unveiling of the portrait
of Vithalbhai Patel, he said: “We would
like the distinguished occupant of this
chair now and always to guard the
freedom and liberty of those from
every possible danger, even from the
danger of an executive incursion.
There is always that danger even from
a National Government — that it may
choose to ride roughshod over the
opinions of a minority, and it is here
that the Speaker comes in to protect
each single member, or each single
group from any such unjust activity by
a dominant group or a dominant
government.”
Other than the election oflok saBha speaker|om Birla