Saturday, May 7 2005 14:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Opposition continuing its boycott of Parliament, an anguished Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today (May 7, 2005) said that he was "unhappy" and had "almost thought" of running away.

He said that he did not believe that his was a "particularly troubled Speaker ship", but admitted that "certainly I haven't had job satisfaction, well, it's not a satisfying job I am doing, I can tell you."

"But since the people have put me there, I'm not running away. I had almost thought of it but I'm not now running away," he said in an interview to NDTV.

"I am unhappy, have a lot of agony in my mind. I am not making any allegation against anybody but my humble request is to all, everybody in the House, to consider whether we are helping in strengthening of the democratic process in the country," he said.

Maintaining that ever since he became the Speaker, there was no occasion where he refused any discussion or not permitted any discussion, he said "I have always said 'please raise issues on the floor of the House and I shall permit', but they (Opposition) in their wisdom decided not to participate."

The Speaker also said that there were "some vague allegations" against him that he was partial and asserted that he had given "more than adequate time" to the Opposition.