Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla performs a ritual during the inauguration ceremony of the Constitution Club of Rajasthan, at State Legislative Assembly in Jaipur on March 8, 2025.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Saturday (March 8, 2025) said the “deliberate disruptions” of the proceedings of the Parliament and State Assemblies were against the spirit of democracy. Legislative institutions should be allowed to function as centres for meaningful dialogue to ensure accountability of elected representatives to the public, he said.
Mr. Birla inaugurated the Constitution Club of Rajasthan, situated near the State Assembly here, while expressing hope that it would emerge as a forum for strengthening democracy. The Opposition Congress boycotted the inaugural ceremony, saying it had already been inaugurated by former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on September 22, 2023.
In his address, Mr. Birla said that although dissent was an important aspect of parliamentary debates, “planned disruptions” of House proceedings were not appropriate in the country’s democratic functioning. “We must ensure meaningful dialogue and healthy debates in our Parliament and Assemblies,” he said.
The Lok Sabha Speaker said the Constitution Club should act as a platform for informal discussions and policy dialogues, and should be used for guiding democratic discourse, policy making, and thoughtfulness. As democracy was not confined to elections alone, the legislators should elevate policy formulation and good governance to new heights through the dialogues at the club, he said.
Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Bhagirath Choudhary, and MPs and MLAs attended the inaugural function. Mr. Devnani said Rajasthan was the first State where a Constitution Club had been established for MLAs, former legislators, and intellectuals.
Mr. Birla and Mr. Sharma released a coffee table book published by the State Assembly on the innovations made by the Speaker during his one-year tenure.
The Congress leaders separately said that since the club, built during the party’s previous tenure, had already been inaugurated earlier, its re-inauguration would set a wrong tradition. Pradesh Congress Committee president Govind Singh Dotasra said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had kept the club closed till now so that it could take credit for its re-inauguration.
Modelled on the lines of New Delhi’s Constitution Club, the Constitution Club of Rajasthan has been constructed a cost of ₹80 crore as a five-storey building with state-of-the-art facilities in 1.95 lakh sq. ft. area. The club has an auditorium and conference hall, a VIP lounge, badminton and tennis courts, a library, gymnasium, and swimming pool.
Published – March 08, 2025 08:22 pm IST