Lok Bhavan refutes Speaker’s remarks on Governor’s letter

Lok Bhavan has “categorically” refuted Assembly Speaker A.N. Shamseer’s statements regarding a letter addressed to him by the Governor.

A statement from Lok Bhavan here on Wednesday said the original of the ‘highly confidential’ letter was served on the Speaker.

It had not so far come to the notice of Lok Bhavan that the said letter had been published by any media. Lok Bhavan did not appreciate the manner in which the Speaker had responded to the letter addressed to him by the Constitutional head of the State. Rules and decorum did not permit a press conference to reply to such a letter.

Governor Rajendra Arlekar had, at all times, adhered to Constitutional propriety, institutional dignity, and established conventions in communications with the legislature. Public insinuations questioning these principles, without verification of facts, were regrettable and undermined the decorum of high constitutional offices, the statement said.

Lok Bhavan urged restraint, responsibility, and respect for Constitutional norms, and expected that future discourse on such sensitive matters would be guided by facts and propriety rather than conjecture, the statement said.

Speaker A.N. Shamseer had alleged that he had received a “copy” of the letter after the media had got it. Responding to queries on the letter sent by the Governor seeking visuals of the policy address by him in the Assembly recently, Mr. Shamseer said the Speaker should be the first to receive the letter from the Governor.

It was “ironical” that the contents of the highly confidential letter were known to the public. “I do not have the opinion that the Governor would do such a thing, but his office should examine if the Speaker’s office needed to reply to a copy of a letter,” Mr. Shamseer said.