Naidu's TDP is eyeing the Lok Sabha Speaker's post; how important is it?

The TDP, which has been a part of various coalition governments knows the critical importance of a Speaker's post only too well. 

For example, TDP’s GMC Balayogi was Speaker when former PM Atal Bihar Vajpayee led the BJP-led coalition in the 1990s. The first Dalit Speaker of the House, he held the post for three years and 342 days in the 12th Lok Sabha. 

In April 1999 when the Vajpayee’s government faced a no-confidence motion, it was Balayogi who had advised Congress leader Giridhar Gamang to vote “as per his conscience”.

The act of allowing Gamang to vote brought down the Vajpayee government. Balayogi later died in a helicopter accident.

What makes Speaker's post powerful

At the outset, the BJP leadership probably feels that by giving its alliance partners a post that derives its powers from the Constitution, it will work as a deterrent for their alliance partners to pull out of the NDA alliance.

As the head of the Lok Sabha, the Speaker has to maintain order and decorum in the House. He or she can adjourn or suspend the proceedings of the House due to lack of decorum of the MPs. Last year, this power was displayed in full force when a record number of Opposition MPs were suspended in the Lok Sabha during the Winter session. 

BJP's Om Birla was the Speaker of the 17th Lok Sabha. 

The Speaker is not just responsible for the conduct of affairs, he or she also oversees the passage of laws by the House. It is the Speaker who decides which member is to address the Parliament and what kind of questions can be asked. 

Most importantly, the Speaker can accept or reject a law that the government intends to pass as a money bill. Money bills are those that pertain to financial matters like taxation or the government's public expenditure.

They are introduced and passed only in the Lok Sabha and do not have to be endorsed by the Rajya Sabha.

The Aadhaar Act, 2016, is an example of a money bill introduced and debated in and passed by the Lok Sabha.

Ceremonial post

However, when the Speaker is from the ruling party and when it enjoys a majority in the Lok Sabha, it is more of a ceremonial post. They tend to follow the dictum of the ruling party's leadership and act at their behest.

Traditionally, the Speaker is chosen from the majority party, while the deputy speaker comes from the Opposition parties. Significantly, the deputy speaker’s post was vacant in the 17th Lok Sabha, in which the Modi-led government had a brute majority.

Speaker and anti-defection law

Besides playing an important role when a government is trying prove its majority on the floor of the house, the Speaker's word is final when it comes to settling disputes in the House.

But a key role the Speaker plays is when a political party member defects and jumps ship to another party.

The Speaker has the power to disqualify a MP from the House on the grounds of defection as per the 10th Schedule of the Constitution. The 10th Schedule was introduced in the mid-1980s to prevent political defections for money or posts. He or she can decide on disqualification petitions, and they can take their time to come up with the decision.

However, in 1992, the Supreme Court held that the decision of the Speaker to disqualify a member is subject to judicial review by courts.

Partisan

There have been cases when Speakers have been accused of being partisan while dealing with defection cases. The June 2022 Maharashtra political crisis, which resulted in the toppling of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government is a recent example.

Allegations were made against Maharashtra speaker Rahul Narwekar for playing a partisan role when the Supreme Court gave him the power to hear and decide the anti-defection proceedings against Eknath Shinde and his MLAs. Shinde had broken away from the Uddhav Thackerary Shiv Sena faction taking a bunch of MLAs with him bringing down the latter's government.

Non-partisan

The Speaker's role is meant to be a non-partisan one as visualised by the Constitution. 

This was driven home by Somnath Chatterjee, who had belonged to CPI(M). He served as Speaker for five years from 2004 in the 14th Lok Sabha.

Interestingly, when the CPI(M) withdrew from the UPA-led government in 2008 over the Indo-US nuclear deal, Chatterjee, however, refused to relinquish his Speaker’s post. He argued that since his position was a non-partisan one as he oversaw the business of the House, he would not quit the post.

Chatterjee was later expelled from his party.