Home minister Amit Shah, a first-time Lok Sabha member, on Thursday lectured new MPs on “how to become an effective parliamentarian” during an orientation programme, advising them to never resort to “unseemly” language or behaviour.
The choice of Shah as one of the two lead speakers at the programme, organised by Speaker Om Birla, raised eyebrows among Parliament officials since he has just over a month’s experience of the Lok Sabha. Conventionally, those who have been MPs many times are invited to lecture the new members.
Although Shah has been a Rajya Sabha MP for two years and has long experience as a member of the Gujarat Assembly, the consensus in the corridors of Parliament was that his selection wasn’t proper.
The lone other speaker was Union minister Nitin Gadkari, who too has only begun his second Lok Sabha term. That both speakers were from the same party was also unusual but didn’t invite comment.
Shah, also the BJP president, said “amaryadit” (undignified or unseemly) language never pays in the long term and asked the new members to be “spasht” (clear) and “katu” (vitriolic) but in “shaleen” (dignified) language.
He advised the new MPs to study Parliament’s rules and traditions and use the “mine of knowledge” that is the Parliament library.
He asked them to minutely study the debates in the Constituent Assembly, arguing they cannot fully understand the Constitution without following the debates and grasp how a particular decision had been arrived at.
Shah asked the MPs to use the opportunities presented by Question Hour, Zero Hour and the like to make a contribution.
He cited how present Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik had, as a Lok Sabha member in 1991, used a question on the singing of Vande Mataram in Kerala schools to demand a short discussion that led to the singing of the National Song being made mandatory in Parliament.
He said that former Speaker Somath Chatterjee’s private member’s bill on including the Nepali language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution had led the government to later accept it.
