New Delhi, Aug 19: Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi today ruled that he did not think that Bharatiya Janata Party member Uma Bharati reading matter about Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi from a book recommended by Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh amounted to making personal references or imputing motives. He said that he had carefully perused Rules 349 and 352 of the rules of procedure and said it was clear that any references that directly or indirectly referred to the issue being discussed in the house could be permitted.

He, therefore, disallowed points of order sought to be raised by Congress members Shivraj Patil and Pawan Kumar Bansal where they had quoted from the two rules and said that Bharati was imputing motives to Digvijay Singh and making personal allegations about Sonia.

The book, which contains writings of eminent journalist Prabhash Joshi, has been commended with a covering letter to all members of Parliament by Digvijay Singh. Bharati had quoted from certain articles to the effect that people of the country had never dreamt that one day they would be following orders of a foreigner, when they had fought for centuries to throw out foreign rulers.
Though the Speaker did not permit her to name Singh and also said that any such references would be struck off the record, she kept referring to 'the person I cannot name' to make her point.

Bureau Report