The Karnataka Congress party has decided to boycott the joint session address by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla scheduled to be held on Friday noon, the last day of the ongoing monsoon session in the state Legislative Assembly hall, contending that it will set a “wrong precedent”.
The special address by Birla on “Democracy – Safeguarding democratic values” was planned by Karnataka Assembly Speaker Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri and Karnataka Legislative Council chairman Basavaraj Horatti, on the concluding day of the 10-day monsoon session to commemorate the 75 years of India’s Independence. It will be the first time that Birla will be addressing the joint session of the two Houses of a Legislature. The address is at 2.30 p.m. on Friday. The Congress party has stated that it is against the principle and spirit of the constitution and the ruling BJP is violating the highest tradition in the state by organising the address of Om Birla to both members of the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. Congress leader D K Shivakumar said that his party will not attend the address as there is no provision for anyone other than the President or the Governor to address the state’s legislators. Shivakumar added that it was planned without even consulting the Opposition. The Congress leader said the move had been opposed by the party at a business advisory council meeting during the ongoing legislature session.
“The Karnataka government and the legislature will be creating a bad precedent by calling the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to the Assembly for a joint session address. On behalf of the Congress legislature party in Karnataka, we all have requested the speaker not to hold such a type of joint session address,” DK Shivakumar, the President of the Congress party in Karnataka said.
