Pakistani lawmakers allege Indian speaker did not meet them or introduce them in parliament as per tradition
Indian Speaker’s Office says speaker waited for Pakistani delegation but they turned up ‘7 minutes late, asserts only ‘official delegations’ get introduced in parliament
A delegation of Pakistani parliamentarians visiting the Lok Sabha Friday complained of being ignored by Indian Parliament Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for arriving “merely seven minutes late” besides adding that they were not given a “proper welcome”.
The delegation comprising 12 Pakistani parliamentarians is on a visit to India on an initiative taken by private group Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency and Congress Member Of Parliament (MP) Mani Shankar Aiyar to link parliamentarians of India and Pakistan.
The delegation, which witnessed the proceedings of the Lok Sabha on Friday, said that the speaker had given them a meeting time of 1 pm but when the delegation arrived at her office “around seven minutes later”, the speaker had left her office in the Parliament House building.
The Speaker’s Office, however, rejected the charge saying Mahajan had waited for the delegation at 1 pm but they did not reach the office on schedule.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Kirti Azad who was in charge of receiving the Pakistanis said he had urged them to come on time, but they arrived at 1:07pm.
“I had asked them to be quick but they were late. They should have honoured the speaker at least,” Azad reportedly said.
Responding to the delegation’s complaint that they were not welcomed, he said, “There must have been a glitch somewhere.”
The Pakistani lawmakers also alleged that they were not allowed to enter the Lok Sabha on Thursday, adding that they were not introduced to the Indian parliamentarians on Friday.
“Today, we visited the (Indian) Parliament and nobody in the House mentioned us. It is a common practice that when parliamentarians from other countries visit a parliament, its speaker announces their arrival and introduces them to the members of the House. We sat in the Lok Sabha gallery for about 20 minutes but there was no announcement and no welcome,” a private news channel quoted Rasheed Gudlam, a member of the Pakistani delegation.
Gudlam said on Thursday the delegation was “denied entry into the House by the speaker’s security personnel”.
The Speaker’s Office, however, said she was not obliged to meet the Pakistani parliamentarians as the delegation was of a private nature, adding that an announcement is only made when an official delegation visits at the invitation of the parliament.
Indian Parliament sources reportedly said that as courtesies were extended to the delegation members, they should have refrained from talking to the media on the issue.
When asked why the usual tradition of introducing the visiting foreign parliamentarians was not followed in this case, Rajya Sabha member Aiyar said such traditions are followed only for an “official delegation” invited by the parliament, adding that the speaker was very courteous in offering the Parliament House Library for a meeting.
When asked whether the Pakistani delegation was not given “due respect”, Indian Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu reportedly said, “They have not approached me. They did not have the courtesy of informing the parliamentary affairs minister.”
This is a serious foreign affairs issue and should be dealt in a serious manner, he added.
