New Delhi: The Congress Monday indicated that it would consider moving a resolution to remove Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla unless Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi is allowed to speak and the suspensions of eight Congress MPs are withdrawn, even as proceedings of the House remained stalled for the sixth consecutive day.
This is likely to be a symbolic step if at all, because the Opposition does not have the numbers, nor is it on the same page on the matter.
While no Congress leader, or any other Opposition MP, made any official statement on the proposed resolution, suggestions were made informally that such a move was being mooted. On camera, leaders, including Rahul, sidestepped the question, underlining instead that “there is no space for the Opposition” in the House.
“The understanding now is that tomorrow we will be allowed to raise these points and that a discussion will follow. We are keen for the discussion to take place. We want the debate to happen, but we will now have to see what the government says,” Rahul told reporters after the House was adjourned for the day, suggesting that a thaw could be reached if he is allowed to speak.
Trinamool Congress MP and the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said TMC has also requested Birla to reconsider the suspensions. Minutes after the House began at 11 am Monday, Birla adjourned proceedings till noon as Opposition members insisted they be allowed to raise certain issues.
The Speaker responded that he would permit members to speak only after winding up Question Hour, to which the first hour of proceedings is devoted.
As soon as the House was adjourned, Congress sources told reporters that the Opposition was mulling a resolution to remove Birla from office. Under Article 94(c) of the Constitution of India, the Speaker “may be removed from his office by a resolution of the House of the People passed by a majority of all the then members of the House”.
However, any such resolution requires a two-week notice, as per the rules.
The House met again at noon, only to be adjourned within moments, and at 2 pm it was adjourned for the day. The standoff persisted as presiding officers declined the Opposition’s request to allow Rahul to make an intervention.
Krishna Prasad Tenneti and Sandhya Roy, who were in the chair at noon and 2 pm respectively, said time had been allotted only for a discussion on the President’s address.
Speaking outside Parliament, Rahul said that while he was not allowed to refer to former army chief General MM Naravane’s (Retired) book or the magazine that carried the excerpts he wanted to quote on multiple occasions, a ruling party MP “spoke at length, quoting multiple books and making very objectionable remarks, yet nothing was said or done”.
“We object to a situation where the ruling party can say anything it wants, whenever it wants, while the Opposition is silenced. The most disturbing issue is the false claim that Opposition members were going to threaten the prime minister. There is no question of any Opposition member attacking the Prime Minister. If anyone had actually made such a threat, an FIR should be filed immediately and that person should be arrested. Why has that not been done?” Rahul said.
In a parallel development, women Congress MPs, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, wrote to Birla, stating that “it is amply clear” that “you are under sustained pressure from the ruling party”. They urged Birla to “act as the impartial custodian of the Lok Sabha”.
“We are being targeted simply because we have consistently fought against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anti-people government and demanded accountability from him. His absence from the House was not due to any threat from us; it was an act of fear,” the MPs wrote, referring to Birla’s statement that he had requested the Prime Minister not to attend the Lok Sabha on Wednesday as he had “concrete information” that some Congress MPs could carry out “some unexpected act”.
In March 2023 too, the idea of a resolution to remove the Speaker was mooted after Rahul was disqualified as an MP following his conviction by a Gujarat court in a defamation case. However, the move did not materialise.
Resolutions seeking the removal of the Speaker have been moved thrice in the past—in 1951 against GV Mavalankar, in 1966 against Sardar Hukum Singh, and in 1987 against Balram Jakhar.
(Edited by Shashank Kishan)
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