Roasting the Rajya Sabha Chairman at his farewell isn’t a healthy practice and must not be condoned

Now that a new vice president is going to assume charge and would be ex officio chairman of Rajya Sabha, the flavour of the house would change as every Rajya Sabha speaker gives his personal touch. M Venkaiah Naidu had his imitable style of conducting the house but perhaps it did not go well with the opposition which thought that the Chairman was not fair to them. The TMC MP Derek O’Brien went on to say that he could not get the prime minister to give a single answer in the house.Indeed there could be some merit in that but what happened at his farewell was uncalled for. Roasting an outgoing speaker for his acts of commission or omission is not a healthy practice. Opposition leaders were rather unsavory in their speeches which would make bad precedence.Farewell is a solemn occasion in which harsh words must be avoided one for it sets a bad precedent and second it is untimely. Democracies don't function by the book they function by conventions. Britain does not even have a written constitution, conventions rule the British Parliament. That shows the maturity of the members and the people at the helm of affairs. Generally speaking, the speaker comes from the ruling party and owes his appointment to it and so his hands are tied, to say the least. The Oppositions criticism of Naidu was more than made good by Prime Minister Modi who heaped lavish praise on him.

Five years back Prime Minister had said things about outgoing Vice President Hamid Ansari which were not in good taste and tantamount to lowering the stature of the person on the chair. PM Modi spoke for 20 minutes to praise Naidu but spoke just for five minutes at the farewell of Ansari. The Prime minister had said that Ansari would feel the joy of liberation as he would be no longer tied to the constitutional post and would be able to think, speak and act as his basic nature. That could be construed as that Ansari was at unease with the constitution and harbored anti-nationalism in his heart. Though Ansari did not make a fuss about it the damage was done and it was reflected five years later in the house during the monsoon session when Naidu was given a farewell. But then let bygones be bygones and hopefully the new person in the chair would be more forthcoming and the members more civil.