New Delhi, May 3
The opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is meeting on Monday to discuss Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s move to refer the names of their MPs to the Privileges Committee for unruly behaviour and evolve the future course of action.

The meeting is being held for the first time after the Speaker referred to the Privileges Committee the issue pertaining to 32 MPs, most of them belonging to the Opposition, for their conduct in the Lok Sabha last week.

Former Union minister Shahnawaz Hussain, who is among the five BJP MPs whose cases have been referred to the committee, said the meeting was expected to decide the future strategy on the issue.

Hussain said he was surprised to see his name among the unruly MPs when the Opposition was raising the issue of price rise in a big way to focus on the government’s failure to check rising prices.

Asserting that members could raise such issues in Parliament, he said on the issue of price rise, there could be no compromise by the Opposition.

However, Hussain chose to avoid the subject of unruly behaviour insisting that such issues could be raised in Parliament.

Justifying their protest in the House, the Shiv Sena, whose two MPs figure in the list of 32, said the party would not tolerate injustice .

Party spokesman Sanjay Raut told news persons that whatever had been done in the House was for raising a burning issue and we were not apologetic about it.

Samajwadi Party chief whip Mohan Singh disapproved of the Speaker’s move saying that he should not have resorted to such an action. I am sad, he said.

Mohan Singh, who is among the panel of presiding officers of the House, pointed out that the Speaker himself had the powers to order a member out or name him in the wake of disturbances. “It is the duty of the Chair to regulate,” he said.

Almost all the affected political parties have chosen to defend their MPs instead of going into the cause as the Speaker’s numerous attempts to conduct the business of the Lok Sabha in a manner befitting for the people’s representatives failed.