‘Asked for a smoking room’: Kiren Rijiju remembered the first request from the speaker – here is what he has received by India News
New Delhi: Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju shared an embarrassing anecdote in politics from his early days, when his first request to the Lok Sabha Speaker was for a “smoking room”.,Recalling his first meeting with speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Kiren Rijiju said he went out with “good scolding” and a permanent text- “Officers with more purpose.”
“The first time I met the speaker Somnath Chatterjee, I went to request a room for smoking MPs. He scolded me, saying, ‘This is your first meeting with the speaker and this is what has come for you?’ PTI said on Saturday that I was a good scolding that day and I came to know that I should contact such offices with more purpose.He was speaking at the Parliament Ratna Awards, where he also expressed that his political opponents were not his “enemies”.“We are all partners. Before 2014, most of my parliamentary careers have been on opposition benches. Political rivalry may exist, but there is no enmity,” he said.Referring to Winston Churchill, Rijiju said, “A new MP once asked Churchill about the people sitting in the corridor, and he said that he was political opponents. But when asked about the people sitting in his favor, he said that he was our political enemies. It is politics. This is politics, but we are not enemies.” He said, “An MP represents around 66,000 people. Here, it is more than 20 lakhs. They are not asked to fix drains or get someone out of jail. But our MPs deal with personal complaints, infrastructure and law enforcement issues and still expected to perform in the House,” he said. “Despite all this, they are often criticized. Each elected MPs deserve respect, this is not an easy task,” he said.
