Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu expressed concern over high absenteeism in Parliament, describing it as a "sorry state of affairs".
Addressing the Lokmat Parliamentary Awards here, Naidu emphasised the importance of attendance of parliamentarians.
"Attendance is very important. Nowadays you see a sorry state of affairs. Sometimes the presiding officers are forced to press the quorum bell in Parliament which should never happen in the House of over 545 members," he said.
"If you are not able to get 50 (members) at any given point of time then what is the point of being the member of the House," he added.
Naidu said criticism and dissent are "essence" of democracy but at the same time while giving "voice there should not be any noise because noise adds to the pollution which is already creating a problem".
Naidu said politicians should understand that they are rivals not enemies.
"Criticism can be forthright but it should be objective and dignified because we are not enemies. Politicians should understand that they are only rivals not enemies. Respecting each other is the tradition of Indian politics but now we are seeing that tensions are developing and animosity is taking shape which is not good for a healthy democracy and system," he said.
He said by "tearing the paper you are causing harm".
"The image you are sending to the people is very very damaging and that has to be understood," he said.
His comment comes a day after AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi ripped the copy of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Parliament to highlight his protest.
He said there cannot be instant justice, but there cannot be constant delays in justice delivery either.
"Nowadays there is a talk of instant justice, you can't have instant justice and you can't have constant delays also. You have to address the issues, register the case, conduct complete inquiry and complete judicial procedure and then give judgement at the earliest that is in interest of the system because there is a process and there is constitutional system," he said.
He also emphasised on the need to increase the number of sittings annually in the House.
"There is a need to increase the number of sittings annually but sometimes the counter question I ask is we do not utilise the time properly and then we are asking for extra time. The parliamentary committees must actively supplement the debates.
"I feel sad that I had to write to parties to ask their members to attend the committees," he said.
He said of late, certain aberrations have crept in like "paid news and fake news" in the media.
"Corporate influence on media organisations and the political views of reporters and editors are occasionally colouring the news. These trends need to be curbed," he said.
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