INDIA bloc offers hard-to-accept truce to Speaker Birla amid no-confidence talk

After indicating its intent to move a resolution seeking the removal of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, the Opposition’s INDIA bloc, particularly the Congress party, has extended an olive branch to both the Speaker and the Centre, as a bid to break the impasse that has washed out proceedings of the Lower House since last Wednesday. The offer, however, is one that neither Birla nor the Centre may find easy to accept.

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On Monday (February 9), Congress MPs indicated that they were weighing the option of moving a resolution, under Article 94(C) of the Constitution, seeking Birla’s removal as Speaker. The suggestion to seek Birla’s removal came up during a meeting of the INDIA bloc floor leaders in the chambers of Rajya Sabha’s Leader of Opposition and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday morning. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi was also present at the meeting.

Opposition ups pressure on Speaker

The move was triggered by events that rocked Lok Sabha last week during the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address; starting with Rahul’s failed attempts at reading out controversial excerpts from former Army chief General MM Naravane’s unpublished memoir, Four Stars of Destiny, and ending with the unprecedented aberration of the discussion ending without the customary reply by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Speaker Birla’s statement before the House that he asked Modi to stay away from the House after receiving “definite information” about “several Congress MPs” planning to create an “inappropriate incident”; the subsequent suspension of eight MPs from the House for the remainder of the session and an ongoing campaign alleging that women MPs from the Congress had planned to “attack Modi” have collectively stalled Lok Sabha proceedings since Wednesday last.

On Monday, when floor leaders of INDIA bloc parties met in Kharge’s chambers, sources said the Congress impressed upon them that the Speaker could not be allowed to conduct House proceedings in a “one-sided” manner and that the Opposition must send a “strong message” that such “partisan conduct” of House proceedings cannot be countenanced. Sources said it was agreed by Opposition parties that another attempt would be made to appeal to the Speaker to allow Rahul to speak in Lok Sabha before the discussion on the Union Budget could be taken up on Monday.

Repeated adjournments deepen deadlock

When the Lower House convened at 11 am, Rahul was on his feet while Congress MP KC Venugopal urged Birla to “allow the LoP” to speak. Birla, however, turned down the request, asserting instead that the LoP can be given a chance to speak after the Question Hour concludes. As Congress MPs persisted with their demand, Birla adjourned the House till noon. When the House reconvened with the TDP’s Krishna Prasad Tenneti presiding over proceedings, Congress MPs pressed once again for Rahul to be given a chance to speak. Tenneti responded saying the party had given the name of Shashi Tharoor to initiate the discussion on the budget and called the Thiruvananthapuram MP to speak. Tharoor, however, said he was yielding the floor to the LoP to speak; a move that instantly prompted Tenneti to adjourn proceedings till 2 pm.

During the day, women MPs from the Congress, including S Jothimani, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jyotsna Mahant, Varsha Gaikwad, R Sudha and others also dashed off a strongly worded letter to the Speaker stating that it was “extremely unfortunate” that he had been “forced by the ruling party to make false, baseless and defamatory allegations against women Members of Parliament belonging to the Opposition, particularly from the Indian National Congress”. The women MPs also urged Birla to “act as the impartial custodian of the Lok Sabha”, adding further, that history must not remember him “as one who bowed to pressure from those who leave no stone unturned in subverting constitutional values and damaging the democratic fabric of our nation”.

Sources said while these exchanges continued between the Congress and the Speaker to break the deadlock in Lok Sabha, various Left parties as well as the DMK informed the Congress leadership that they were on board the plan to seek Birla’s removal if and when such a resolution was moved.

Opposition unity still evolving

The Trinamool Congress (TMC), which had conveyed to the Congress that it would discuss the suggestion with its leader Mamata Banerjee, had not reverted with a clear response by Monday evening, Congress sources said. However, TMC MP and party vice president Abhishek Banerjee told reporters that his party had appealed to the Speaker to revoke the suspension of the eight MPs (seven from the Congress and one from the CPM). The Congress was also awaiting a response from Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar's NCP-SP.

Also read | Cong says ‘wait for action’ amid reports of no-trust motion against Lok Sabha Speaker

At 2 pm, when the Lower House reconvened with the BJP’s Sandhya Ray presiding over proceedings, Rahul told Ray, “…the Speaker committed to us that I will be allowed to speak here and raise some points before the budget discussion; now you are going back on your word. I would like to know am I allowed to speak those points or not.”

Union Parliamentary Affairs minister Kiren Rijiju told the House, “if he (LoP) is going to use the opportunity to level allegations against the Speaker then the Speaker will also have to respond… Speaker has given no assurance that the LoP will be allowed to speak on any issue”. The House was then adjourned for the day.

Sources said a fresh bid to break the impasse was made again from the Speaker’s office as well as the Centre’s side, citing the necessity to allow the discussion on the Union Budget to commence since the budget session has only four more sittings before the customary mid-session recess kicks in on February 13. The Congress, however, remained resolute and informed the Speaker that it would allow the budget discussion to proceed without disruptions “only if Rahul is allowed to speak before the start of the discussion”.

Rahul puts forth four demands

Without expressly confirming the Opposition’s plans for seeking Birla’s removal, Rahul informed reporters that an “agreement” had been reached but added that whether it would hold or not will depend entirely on how the government reacts when Lok Sabha reconvenes on Tuesday morning.

The Lok Sabha LoP told reporters that there were mainly four issues he wanted to speak about in the House. “The first issue: not allowing the LoP and the entire Opposition to speak on the President’s Address; second issue – one of their members (BJP MP Nishikant Dubey) spoke quoting multiple books and spoke very vile stuff and nothing was said (by the Speaker); we don’t like the fact that they can say whatever they want whenever they want and the Opposition cannot. The third issue is suspension of our members and the final issue, which we are very disturbed about is this idea that has been floated that members were going to threaten the Prime Minister; there is no question about it… the fact is very clear the Prime Minister was scared to come to the House not because of the members but because of what I was saying and he is still scared because he cannot face the truth; there is no question of our members attacking the Prime Minister,” Rahul said.

“The agreement now is that we will be allowed to say these things tomorrow (in the House) and then the discussion should happen; we are very keen that the discussion should happen. My personal view is that the government is very scared; it is worried about having a debate on the budget because of the issue of the US deal and the way it was done, the impact on our farmers… and the government doesn’t want to discuss that,” Rahul added.

Opposition weighs removal motion

Opposition members The Federal spoke to variously said that while they are “acutely aware” of the “disturbing image that a motion seeking removal of the Speaker would paint of our Parliament”, they had been “left with no option because of the actions of the Speaker and the government”.

A senior Congress MP, who was part of the meeting where the plan to move the resolution under Article 94(C) was mooted, said, “we know that the motion will be defeated because we do not have the majority that the Constitution stipulates for such a resolution to be carried but what other option do we have… at least if the motion is admitted, the Opposition will have a chance to tell the country through Parliament, and it will become a matter of parliamentary record, how our voice and the voice of the LoP was being muzzled by the Centre with the complicity of the Speaker.”

If the Opposition indeed goes ahead with the resolution, the motion will have to be endorsed by at least 50 MPs of the Lower House as stipulated under Rule 201(3) of the Lok Sabha's Rules of Procedure.

Also read | Will Naravane’s memoir row trigger another prolonged stalemate in Parliament?

Further, as per Rule 200(1), the motion can be admitted only after 14 days from the date of receipt of the notice of the resolution. Those drafting the resolution will also have to bear in mind the clear stipulations laid down in Rule 200A which determine the conditions for admissibility of the notice. The rule states that the resolution shall be "specific with respect to charges" and be expressed "clearly and precisely" without any "arguments, inferences, ironical expressions, imputations or defamatory statements".

Showdown looms in House

The Opposition has the requisite bench strength to move the resolution and since the budget session will continue till April 2 (with the recess period extending from February 14 till March 8), the 14 day notice period can also be served. The question before the Opposition, as well as the Speaker and the Centre, is whether dragging the prestige of the Speaker’s office through the muck of political acrimony can be avoided.

The Opposition has made its terms to avoid such a situation clear: it wants Rahul to be given the chance to finish his tirade against Modi that was abruptly cut short by Birla and the Treasury MPs last week and it wants the suspension of MPs revoked. The choice before Birla, and more importantly the Centre, isn’t an easy one – can it allow Rahul to have his day in Parliament?