Union minister M K Alagiri will no longer have to fight shy in parliament for his not being well-versed in English or Hindi. Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar has worked out an arrangement by which he would be able to face the opposition in the houses effectively.

The speaker has told Alagiri that he could answer a main question by reading out the reply in English and the supplementaries could be fielded by his deputy Srikant Jena.

Parliament sources described it as a “fair solution” as it would solve the language problem being faced by Alagiri, a senior DMK leader and son of Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi.

Alagiri had been keeping away from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha for most of the time as he is not comfortable speaking in English or Hindi and wants to speak in Tamil.

His was perhaps a unique case in parliament with hardly any precedent of such requests to the presiding officers.

The monsoon session of parliament will commence on July 26. The budget session had seen opposition creating a ruckus in both houses over the absence of Alagiri and, in the Lok Sabha, members did not allow Jena to reply on his behalf.