NEW DELHI: Opposition members in Lok Sabha on Tuesday said that they want Speaker Om Birla to conduct the House proceedings “fairly” and without succumbing to “pressure” from the government.
On the other hand, the ruling NDA strongly defended Birla’s conduct, maintaining that he was impartial and treated both sides of the aisle equally in the lower house.
Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said the Opposition was compelled to bring a resolution for Birla’s removal to “save the Constitution”, as he accused him of partisan behaviour.
Initiating the debate on the resolution for the removal of Birla from the Speaker’s post, Gogoi claimed that the environment of Parliament has become such that the LoP is not allowed to speak in the House during the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address in February because the leadership of the country is “weak”.
Giving reasons as to why the Opposition was compelled to bring the resolution, the MP from Assam’s Jorhat said, “We stated that in February, when the LoP wanted to speak on the motion of thanks to the President’s address, he was interrupted 20 times by the Speaker, members of the chairpersons’ panel, senior members of the treasury benches. He was interrupted in a premeditated manner.”
“The Speaker did not allow the LoP to speak. The LoP was repeatedly interrupted while attempting to place a few critical issues mandatory to be known to the House and the people of the country,” Gogoi said.
He pointed out that Gandhi wanted to speak about former army chief MM Naravane’s remarks in his unreleased book, in which he reportedly talked about taking direction from the political leadership and the country’s “mukhiya” told him “’Jo uchit samjho wahi karo” (Do what you feel is right).
At this point, Jagdambika Pal, who was in the chair, urged Gogoi to stick to the reasons for bringing the resolution against Birla.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju intervened, saying this was a discussion on the Speaker, and if the opposition is talking of other issues, they should not interrupt when “we reply”.
Responding to Gogoi’s assertion that Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to speak in the House, Rijiju said, “That day I was upset for the fact that the Opposition MP said that ‘I do not need permission from anyone to speak in Parliament’. This is on record.”
Taking further jibes at the Opposition MPs amid sloganeering, Rijiju said he has “no cure” if someone believes themselves to be “above the speaker” in the House.
Gaurav Gogoi took a swipe at Rijiju: “In future when there will be research on parliamentary records and transcripts are looked at, statistics will tell that Kiren Rijiju was the parliamentary affairs minister, who interrupted the Opposition the most.”
Coming to Rijiju’s defence, Union Home Minister Amit Shah asserted that such interruptions are only necessary when someone doesn’t adhere to the parliamentary rules. Shah then quipped that it is true that Rijiju has interrupted the most, but there has never been an opposition like the current one.
DMK leader T R Baalu, praised Birla as a “gentleman” but lamented his “harsh” steps against the opposition, prompting the ruling alliance to claim that the speaker had acted only to check their “anarchic” behaviour. Baalu said he has great personal regard for the speaker but wants him to take corrective steps in his conduct.
“He is such a gentleman, but I don’t know what went wrong with him. He has suspended so many MPs in the last seven years. But why does he have to take such harsh steps? Our duty is to see that some corrective measures are taken. I want to impress upon the speaker to act fairly,” he said.
Describing the no-confidence motion nothing but an attempt to keep the Speaker under pressure, JD-U leader and Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh said when the custodian of the House tries to control certain behaviours of some members, including ruling party members and ministers, all accept that.
“To maintain the decorum and dignity of the House, the Speaker has to control unruly members. This is nothing wrong,” he said.
The minister alleged that more than half of the time, the opposition members shout and stage protests in the House.
Shiv Sena (UBT) member Arvind Sawant said Birla is a “gentleman” and they respect him, but there is “pressure” on him to act against the opposition.
Sawant said the House should function within rules and regulations as this is the highest temple of democracy. He also questioned why no deputy speaker has been appointed so far.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra described as “divine karma” that she was supporting a motion to remove Birla as Lok Sabha Speaker from where she was “wrongly” expelled in 2023.
In her explosive speech, she also said the current speaker has set “less than graceful benchmarks” while presiding over the House and accused the ruling party of turning Parliament into a ``circus of democracy.’’
She said on the past three occasions when a resolution to remove the speaker came up before the House, there were deputy speakers to preside the House.
But now there is no deputy speaker for years and a panel of presiding officers were running the House during the crucial issue on Tuesday.
Moitra alleged that a rule which allows the speaker to suspend MPs without a formal resolution in case of grave misconduct has been abused by the current speaker, which is the “very antithesis of democracy”.
“It is all that democracy should not be. In December 2023, Birla ji ordered the largest mass suspension in the history of Indian Parliament, suspending 100 opposition MPs. This one episode alone accounted for over 40 per cent of all Lok Sabha suspensions since 2004,” she claimed.
Rahul’s sister and fellow MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra reacted after Rijiju ended his speech. She said: “They are unable to digest what the Leader of Opposition (Rahul) says, because in the last 12 years (of Narendra Modi as PM), he is the only one who has refused to bow.”
She added, “They (BJP-led NDA government’s MPs) say I keep smiling when they speak. I smile, I laugh because they are suddenly praising Jawaharlal Nehru — whom they otherwise abuse — for his speech when a motion was brought against the LS Speaker of the time (in the 1950s).” Rijiju had asked the Congress-led Opposition to “remember at least” what Nehru said — referring to his defence of the then Speaker GV Mavalankar.
TDP member Lavu Srikrishna Devarayalu said Birla has given maximum time to the new members and productivity in the Lok Sabha was highest under him. He claimed that the no-confidence motion was brought “not to succeed but to create spectacular headlines”. with agency inputs