Taking stock:Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu speaks at the valedictory session.PTI  

Referring to the Parliament proceedings last week which were washed out by protests, Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu, who is the Rajya Sabha Chairman, said here on Sunday that more than the government and the Opposition, it was the people of the country who lost out in such a situation.

Addressing the valedictory session of the National Legislators’ Conference here, Mr. Naidu said there was no place for banners, placards or shouting in the House.

“One week of Rajya Sabha was lost. Who is the loser? Someone in the Opposition may think the government is a loser, the government may think the Opposition is loser. But it is the country and the people who lose out. How much money they have spent, how much confidence they have put in us, in our system. These disruptions will not help us,” Mr. Naidu said.

He said the inviolability of the question hour should be maintained. Mr. Naidu stressed that public representatives must introspect on their conduct.

“We came to this House by shouting slogans, by pasting posters, by holding placards. But inside the House, there is no place for all this,” he said.

He said parliamentarians need to be more regular to the House. “It is ironical that there are 543 members in the Lok Sabha and 245 members in the Rajya Sabha, yet sometimes you have to press the quorum bell. Some say it is the government’s responsibility, some say it is Opposition’s responsibility. I would say it is a joint responsibility of both,” Mr. Naidu said.

The four Cs

The Vice-President said that it was the four Cs — character, calibre, capacity and conduct — that made a good leader.

“But some people are replacing it with three Cs — caste, community and cash. That can never be a substitute. It may help you temporarily, but it is the four Cs and the contribution you make to public life that will help make you the leader,” he said.

Mr. Naidu said the disruptions in Parliament had left him disturbed and disillusioned.

He asked both the Union and the State governments to increase the number of sittings of Parliament and Assembly.