New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday said that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has “perfected the art” of turning off the microphones for Opposition MPs.
Supporting the motion of no confidence against Birla, she raised several objections regarding parliamentary procedures during the debate in the House.
Participating in the discussion, Moitra stated: “It seems that the Speaker has perfected the art of turning off the microphones for the Opposition members.”
She claimed that ruling party members are “allowed to speak endlessly”, while the time for Opposition members is often “cut short” whenever they try to address the house.
“The Speaker has systematically stifled the voice of the Opposition, and by extension, the voice of 410 million Indians,” she said.
Moitra said that the consensus of the Lok Sabha had not been taken regarding who would preside over the proceedings during the debate on the motion.
She also pointed out that the Constitution mandates that the posts of Speaker and Deputy Speaker should be filled as soon as they fall vacant, but there is currently no Deputy Speaker in the Lok Sabha.
Opening the debate on behalf of the Trinamool, Moitra said: “Today I stand in this House with a heavy heart but with a complete clarity of purpose to support the motion of No-confidence against the Speaker of the 18th Lok Sabha for presiding over the liquidation of the functioning of the parliamentary democracy.”
She also referred to her own expulsion from the Lok Sabha in the previous Parliament and said the current debate carried a sense of irony for her.
“It is richly ironical, a divine karma actually, that I, the lady MP, who was illegally witch-hunted by this misogynistic government, wrongly expelled by the Ethics Committee, which had no power to expel after a motion in which I was not allowed to speak. Whether Speaker, in violation of every principle of natural justice, did not allow me to defend myself. Today, I am opening the debate for my party on the motion of no confidence against that very Speaker. You can’t run away from karma,” she said.
Moitra said that the motion was part of a long parliamentary tradition and cited earlier instances when similar resolutions were moved against Lok Sabha Speakers.
“It is a fitting tribute to the vibrancy of India’s democracy and the strength of India’s dissenting voices that a motion of no confidence was opened against the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha, G.V. Mavalankar, in 1954. He was accused of officially espousing the cause of the official spokesperson of the ruling party in all matters and causing serious danger to the functioning of the Lok Sabha,” she said.
Referring to the debate that followed that motion, Moitra said that then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had participated and had suggested that the Opposition should be given more time than the government during discussions.
“Pandit Nehru, who was then PM, participated in the debate and said that more time should be allotted to the Opposition than to the government benches. Pandit Nehru, as the PM, said this; what is the tradition that we are following today?” she asked.
The Trinamool MP also mentioned two other occasions when similar motions had been moved against Lok Sabha Speakers. She referred to the second such motion in 1966 against Speaker Sardar Hukum Singh and another in 1987 against Speaker Balram Jakhar.
“The resolution was critical of Jakhar’s rulings, which denied the Opposition MPs from moving the adjournment motions. And what do we have today? We have a Speaker who has not allowed a single adjournment motion,” she said.
Moitra reiterated that the Constitution requires both the Speaker and Deputy Speaker positions to be filled, but noted that the Deputy Speaker’s post currently remains vacant.
She also alleged that the House was not consulted on the decision regarding who would preside over the proceedings on the motion.
During her speech, Moitra accused Speaker Om Birla of ordering the largest mass suspension of MPs in the history of the Indian Parliament.
“This one episode alone accounted for over 40 per cent of all Lok Sabha suspensions since 2004,” she said, adding that the suspensions took place when MPs were demanding a government statement on a breach of Parliament security.
She also claimed that “not a single suspension” was from the ruling party.
Her remarks drew objections from BJP members in the House, following which Krishna Prasad Tenneti, who was presiding over the proceedings, said that an objectionable word used by Moitra would be removed from the record.
During the exchange, Moitra responded to a marshal whose voice could be heard through the Speaker’s microphone, asking him to stop speaking, saying: “He is sitting on the chair and not you.”
She continued her remarks regarding the suspension of MPs, but Tenneti intervened to clarify that MPs are suspended by the House and not directly by the Speaker.
Responding to this, Moitra said: “I am glad that you are reminded of this by the marshal, and I will take your point,” and she thanked the marshal again before modifying her statement to say that the Speaker presided over the House during the suspensions.
In a lighter remark, she said the marshal should perhaps be added as the “tenth member of the panel of chairpersons”.
The comment triggered further protests from BJP members. BJP MP Bhartruhari Mahtab asked Tenneti to caution Moitra over such remarks, saying they were inappropriate.
Tenneti said he agreed with the objection and noted that Moitra’s comments were directed against the Chair.
In response, Moitra said: “We are moving a no-confidence motion against the Chair; obviously, the comments will be against the Chair.”
(IANS)
