Shankaramurthy slams Speaker for suspending 10 MLAs

Coming down heavily on the ruling Congress and Assembly Speaker U T Khader for suspending 10 BJP legislators last month, former Legislative Council chairman D H Shankaramurthy on Thursday likened the action to capital punishment for pickpocketing.

Participating in a discussion on 'Suspension of MLAs' organised by the Citizens for Democracy here, Shankaramurthy said: "When I read the news about 10 MLAs being suspended, immediately, I felt that the Chair has committed a blunder. It was like giving the capital punishment to a pickpocket."

Shankaramurthy stressed that courts generally try to be sympathetic towards even hardened criminals, they try to opt for softer punishments instead awarding capital punishment but in this case Speaker chose to give the hardest punishment instead of opting for admonishments to erring members.

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Shankaramurthy maintained that he does not wish to speak about present chief minister (Siddaramaiah), a leader who kicked door of Assembly, Congress MLAs threw paper weight on deputy speaker (Yogish Bhat), tore files, walked bare chest in Assembly and all these things happened in Assembly but none was suspended for committing such indecent acts.

"BJP has always stood for protecting the constitutional values, while Congress always had scant respect for any rule of decorum," he said and quipped that going by present style of functioning of Speaker (Khader), one may not be surprised if he decides to disqualify opposition MLAs.

Former speaker, Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri pointed out that Karnataka speakers have used ‘suspension’ clause in rarest of rare cases but never used for members merely 'tearing papers' while in protest.

"This is the most unusual way of handling a case. Khader has committed an unpardonable mistake. The Speaker, being new, should have adjourned the House for lunch instead of hurriedly pronouncing his judgment," he said.