Bengaluru: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla Thursday called for keeping politics out of Parliament and state legislatures, stressing the need to restore dignity and quality in legislative debates.Speaking at the inauguration of the 11th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) India Region Conference at Vidhana Soudha, Birla said there was a general consensus among all speakers and presiding officers that debate standards are falling.“It is a collective effort that needs to be pooled into, ensuring that this does not dip further and that there is definitely an improvement in the quality of debates. The responsibility is of every party, MP, MLA and presiding officer to uphold the dignity of debates and thereby that of the individual legislature,” Birla said.He criticised increasing partisanship, even in legislature committees. “Politics needs to be kept out of the house. There is no place for politics in a temple of legislation,” the Speaker added.Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh echoed his views, recalling how Parliament once debated Operation Blue Star for 17 hours. “But the same level of debate is not happening on other pressing issues. This needs to be addressed,” he added.Chief minister Siddaramaiah, who spoke after struggling with dim lighting at the podium, called debates a ritual of accountability and warned against democratic decay. “Democracy is endangered less by external enemies and more by its inner corrosion, when debate is replaced by despotism, when dialogue becomes monologue, and when legislatures turn into instruments of partisanship rather than arenas of the common good,” he said.“The biggest problem is the erosion of democratic culture. Beyond formal structures, democracy depends on habits of respect, dialogue, and tolerance. When public debate turns into hostility, when legislatures become arenas of disruption rather than deliberation, the culture of democracy itself begins to decay,” Siddaramaiah added.Birla also urged legislatures to embrace technology and AI to engage with citizens. “Technology and AI is the way forward to connect with the public and keep them abreast of what their representatives are doing for them inside the legislatures,” he said.The three-day CPA conference, which brought together presiding officers and legislators from across India, opened with grandeur. Reports said participants were given gift hampers, including iPads, sandalwood kits, and traditional attire.
