No return to active politics: Meira

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Amid reports that she could be projected as the chief ministerial candidate of the Congress in the coming Bihar Assembly polls, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Tuesday virtually ruled out return to active politics in the near future. “I hope this matter remains relevant for another four years,” she remarked when asked about reports of her return to active politics.

Ms Kumar assumed office as Speaker after the general elections last year and her term is for another four years.
A section in the Congress feels that projection of Ms Kumar would help the party in the state where it has declared to go it alone despite attempts by the RJD for a pre-poll alliance.
Meanwhile, Ms Kumar will address the joint session of the Bhutanese Parliament on Friday and launch a Friendship Group comprising MPs for Bhutan, the first such initiative by the Indian Parliament.
The Speaker, who embarks on a four-day visit to Bhutan on Wednesday, said that Parliament would be launching 60 Friendship Groups of Parliamentarians in the near future to promote dialogue between democracies. Ms Kumar will be the first Lok Sabha Speaker to address a joint sitting of the Bhutanese Parliament. Bhutan embraced democracy when elections were first held in the tiny Himalayan nation in March 2008.
This transition to constitutional monarchy was led by the fourth King Jigme Singye Wangchuck.
The Speaker will be accompanied by a delegation comprising Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj (BJP), Lok Sabha MPs Girija Vyas (Congress) and Vishwa Mohan Kumar (JDU), Rajya Sabha members Pyarimohan Mohapatra (BJD) and Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil (NCP) and senior parliament officials.
They will meet Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, Prime Minister Jigme Thinley, National Assembly Speaker Tshogton Jigme Tshultim and other senior leaders.
“During my visit, we will be launching the first ever Friendship Group of parliamentarians for Bhutan,” Ms Kumar told reporters here.
She said Indian Parliament will launch 60 such friendship groups to promote dialogue among several nations.
The next Friendship Group will be for Hungary, Ms Kumar said.
The Speaker will decide on grant of permission to prosecute Congress MP Rajaram Pal in the cash-for-query scam that rocked Parliament five years ago.
“His case is under examination. The ethics committee has sent it to me. I have to decide,” Ms Kumar told reporters when asked about the status of his case.
The Delhi Police had sent its request for sanction to prosecute Pal in July 2009, soon after the 15th Lok Sabha came into being.
In 2005, the Ethics Committee, asked to look into the matter, held 11 MPs guilty who were expelled from the Lok Sabha by then Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.
Pal, who was a BSP MP in the previous Lok Sabha was among those expelled from the House but he managed to win the 2009 General Elections from Akbarpur in UP on the Congress ticket.