By ARUN PRATAP SINGH
Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 18 Aug: A major protocol lapse has come to the fore during the state level Independence Day celebrations held at the Parade Ground in Dehradun on Friday. This lapse has left Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Ritu Khanduri Bhushan deeply upset. As per the report, Bhushan is angry at the administration for not being accorded her due position on the dais. Taking serious note of the matter, the Assembly Secretariat has formally written to Chief Secretary Anand Bardhan, drawing attention to the violation of protocol, expressing the Speaker’s displeasure. The letter also demands action against those responsible.
In response, the Chief Secretary is learnt to have taken up the issue with urgency and has sought an immediate explanation from Information Secretary Shailesh Bagoli and District Magistrate, Dehradun, Savin Bansal. Questions are now being raised as to why the proper seating arrangement was not ensured for the Assembly Speaker, despite her being an officially invited dignitary at the ceremony.
What has further aggravated the matter is that this is not the first such negligence reported from Dehradun district administration. A similar breach was earlier been flagged during the visit of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, weakening confidence in the administrative machinery’s adherence to established protocol. The recurrence of such lapses has cast a shadow on Uttarakhand’s administrative discipline, raising concerns about whether due respect is consistently extended to constitutional positions.
Sources claim that Ritu Khanduri Bhushan has taken the incident as an affront to the dignity of her office, considering it not just a procedural lapse. Her dismay has been conveyed unequivocally to the state government.
In its communication to the Chief Secretary, the Assembly Secretariat underlined the fact that the Speaker had been invited as a state dignitary to the Independence Day function at the Parade Ground. Along with the invitation, the Information Secretary had circulated a map of the proposed seating plan, showing the Assembly Speaker’s seat placed behind the Chief Minister’s, an arrangement the Secretariat deemed inappropriate.
The letter has further emphasised that such a seating plan failed to uphold the dignity of the Assembly Speaker’s constitutional position, terming it regrettable and unwarranted. It states that the Speaker felt when her rightful place in accordance with protocol was not ensured, her presence at the function would have appeared inappropriate. The Secretariat has clearly conveyed that corrective measures and accountability are expected from the government.
The incident has stirred debate within political and administrative circles, as the government now faces the critical task of deciding what action to take and on whom responsibility will be fixed for the repeated breaches of protocol that strike at the heart of institutional respect and decorum. In Uttarakhand, there have been cases in the past too of breach or negligence of protocol at the public functions or during the visits of constitutional authorities. One very common breach of protocol in the state has been not sending invitation for public events attended by the CM or a minister to the local MLA, particularly if he or she are from the Opposition. Often their names have been missing on the foundation stone too in several events which is a clear breach of protocol as the local MLA is supposed to preside over such public events in the constituency.
