As you take charge of the Speaker’s chair, what is your foremost priority?

Maintaining the dignity of the House is very important. The country has elected 542 MPs, each one by lakhs of people. And when they come to the House, they have to present the problems and aspirations of those who have elected them. All this has to be done in an atmosphere that is congenial, the debates have to be meaningful and there should be decorum and dignity in the House.

A key concern has been the hours and days that the House does not work. Would you like to stipulate at least a minimum 100 days per year for the Lok Sabha?

I would want to increase days that the Legislature meets, but before finalising anything, I need to consult leaders of all parties.

Several leaders have hoped that the Legislature will be able to ride out pressures put on it by the Executive.

There are three very important functions of the Legislature. The first is of assessing the Executive. The Executive is accountable to the House. This is very important. Second, meaningful debates on national and world issues have to be held in a meaningful way. Third, Parliament’s job is to legislate, make laws. We will have to devote ourselves to spending a lot of time in performing all those functions. We cannot afford to ignore any of these functions.

Your immediate predecessor, Somnath Chatterjee, set a very high bar for the Speaker’s Office, so much so that it had some very dramatic consequences, like his expulsion from his party. Do you feel Speakers should resign from their political parties to ensure total impartiality?

... contd.