nThere is an impression that a conflict is brewing between the Speaker and the governor. What do you have to say about that?

That is a misconception. The role of the governor and speaker are well defined in the Constitution. In the constituent Assembly, Bhim Rao Ambedkar had stressed the supremacy of the parliamentary system. The President and the governor do not have the mandate to rule. Their roles are defined in Articles 174 and 164 of the Constitution. Their role is to give assent to bills passed by the legislative Houses and if they see any flaw in the bill, they can send it back to the government with queries. Withholding the bills raises questions on the parliamentary system.

nAt the recent meeting of presiding officers in Jaipur, you had strongly advocated for putting a time frame on governors for giving their assent.

There have been 94 amendments in our Constitution. The Sarkaria Commission, the Venkatachaliah Commission and the Administrative Reforms Commission all had made similar suggestions. Quite a few of the suggestions made by these commissions have been accepted and the necessary amendments in the Constitution have been made. Somehow, the suggestion to put a time frame on assent to bills passed by legislative Houses has been missed out. There should be action on this account also. As I said a bill being withheld after it has been debated in an elected legislative body puts a question mark on the parliamentary system. In Bihar, bills related to higher education have been withheld.

nYou have had a long term as a legislator. Have you found the role of legislators changing?

I have found a positive change. They have become more involved in legislative work. There participate in debates inside the House. Even when you speak to them outside the House, you will find them behaving and speaking decently even to the common masses. You will find that within the House also, incidents like trouping into the well has drastically come down.

nBut in the past there have been several incidents of legislators behaving with high-handedness in the public.

I would not like to remember what happened in the past. I believe in speaking about the present. I have seen things change for the better. The situation in the present Assembly is better than in the previous House of which I was also the Speaker.

nYour present House has 87 MLAs who have come to the Assembly for the first time and are inexperienced.

I have been trying to overcome this shortcoming. Recently, we held a two-day training camp in collaboration with the Lok Sabha secretariat in which apart from the Speaker of the Lok Sabha Meira Kumar, seasoned parliamentarians like Arun Jaitley, Sharad Yadav and chief minister Nitish Kumar addressed the legislators on various aspects of Assembly proceedings. Even deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and the leader of Opposition addressed the gathering. Reputed experts of parliamentary proceedings were called to answer the questions of the legislators. Even during my first tenure as the Speaker, I held a similar training camp for the MLAs.

nThe present House is a one-sided affair with the ruling alliance winning 206 out of 243 seats.

Well that credit goes to the people. The numbers were decided by the people. There is nothing we can do about it. But so far as House proceedings are concerned, opposition MLAs have equal rights and responsibilities in running the House. The opposition in the Assembly have been very active in running the Assembly. There is no discrimination.

nThe Assembly constituency you represent Imamganj is known to be a hotbed of Maoism. Don’t you think that it is a strong contradiction to parliamentary democracy?

There is Maoism, communism, socialism and many other things. It’s an ongoing battle. I try to assert my belief in parliamentary democracy. It’s the people who decide which thought wins.

nWhat do you aspire for the Bihar Assembly?

Vaishali was the place democracy took its birth. I would like the Bihar Assembly to emerge the best in the country for the quality of debates and its proceedings.

nAbout Choudhary

Choudhary was born in Masaurhi and is a graduate from Patna University. The Bihar Speaker declared that had he not entered mainstream politics, he would have remained a social activist. He recalled that in 1984, the then SP and DM of Patna had surrounded him to get him arrested for the social activism he triggered off through agitations against bonded labour. “Several documentaries were made on me and my social activism. I have always stood by the downtrodden sections of the masses,” he said. Incidentally, Choudhary had a short sting in jail.