Parliament meant for debate, discussion, not disruption: VP Venkaiah Naidu

Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said, "Assemblies and Parliament are meant for debate, discussion, and decision, and not for disruptions." The Vice President was speaking at an event after presenting the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry's Sir M Visvesvaraya Memorial Award to Dr M R Jayaram, Chairman of Gokula Education Foundation (GEF), Ramaiah Group of Institutions.

Bengaluru: Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said, "Assemblies and Parliament are meant for debate, discussion, and decision, and not for disruptions." The Vice President was speaking at an event after presenting the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry's Sir M Visvesvaraya Memorial Award to Dr M R Jayaram, Chairman of Gokula Education Foundation (GEF), Ramaiah Group of Institutions.

Addressing an event in Bangalore, he referred to the ugly scenes witnessed in the Rajya Sabha recently. He said that "All elected public representatives should focus more on improving the standards of the life of the people by rising to the need of the occasion. You might have seen some time back, what happened in the Parliament, a lot of youngsters called me and told me, Sir! you are the Vice President of India, why are you so sad? I said I'm sad because of the bad behaviour of some people, to the new low the Indian Parliament had gone."

He further said, "Every legislator and public representative should keep in mind the need to raise the standards of the institution he or she is representing, and improve one's contribution by caliber, character, capacity and conduct. You are the role model for the people, if you behave like this then what is the inspiration the people and the youngsters will get? Assemblies and parliament are meant for debate, discussion and decision. Debate, discuss and decide, but do not disrupt. Disrupting means you are disrupting the cause of the country. There may be some tension, but you must come back to attention."

He said, "I can take action, but the point is people of the country when they see such things on TV, they will become sad. Protest and dissent are right in a democracy, agree to disagree, but you can't physically force anybody, because in a democracy the verdict of the people is ultimate. We must respect the verdict of the people, whichever it is. Adding that in a democracy the majority should be respected and the majority should also keep in mind the need to take the minority along." Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai were among the others present at the event.