August 2, 2005
Mobile ring in Indian Parliament jangles speaker's nerves
The indelicate trilling of a mobile phone in the middle of his tributes to deceased Saudi Arabian King Fahd caused a furious Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to issue a stern warning to members Tuesday, reports the Indo-Asian News Service.
"Chatterjee, at the end of his tether with unruly behaviour from MPs in the lower house, stopped in the middle of his statement mourning the king's death to admonish the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP - "Please go out of here."
The embarrassed MP hurriedly attended to the phone, but not before the persistent ringing jangled Chatterjee's nerves a little more.
"I must warn members... if this happens in future, the instrument will be impounded," the speaker told the house in general, and the mobile-carrying member in particular.
Mobile phones are not allowed inside parliament, but recalcitrant MPs have forced the installation of jammers to stop the phone from ringing."
Related articles:
-- MPs banned from using electronic devices in Commons - Members of the UK Parliament who interrupt the session with text message noises or ring tones can expect to be admonished by the Leader of the House
-- Italian deputies drowned out in mobile phone clampdown - Pier Ferdinando Casini, speaker of the lower house of the Italian parliament, has ordered loudspeakers be installed, set at a very high volume, under all deputies' benches - to drown out mobile phone conversations among deputies...
-- Japanese lawmakers scolded for sending SMS in Parliament - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi scolded rookie lawmakers Thursday for reading comic books and sending text messages during legislative sessions.
-- MPs allowed to text on the bench House of Representatives Speaker Neil Andrew of The Parliament of Australia yesterday ruled in favour of MPs using cell phones for text messaging.
-- Video Phones Outlawed in SA Parliamentary Chambers - South African Speaker Peter Lewis warned MPs that they could lose parliamentary privilege by using camera phones in parliamentary chambers.
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