Kamal Ghorui
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla
NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has decided not to preside over Lower House proceedings till the opposition’s notice for a motion to remove him is disposed of by the House.The Congress on Tuesday moved a no-confidence notice against Birla, accusing him of repeated partisan conduct during the ongoing Budget session. The party alleged that he denied leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi the opportunity to speak and ordered the suspension of opposition MPs.
The motion, signed by 120 opposition MPs, also cited Birla’s failure to act against Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey over alleged unsubstantiated remarks against Congress women MPs, along with the suspension of eight opposition members.Sources told news agency ANI that opposition MPs alleged “blatantly partisan” conduct and that leaders of Opposition parties were not allowed to speak. Sources said the notice of motion of no-confidence cited four incidents against the Speaker, including the Opposition’s allegation that Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to speak in the House during the discussion on the motion of Thanks to the President’s Address. Gandhi cited General MM Naravane’s unpublished memoir to discuss the 2020 standoff against China.Sources added that the Opposition MPs also flagged the suspension of eight MPs, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey’s “objectionable and personalised attacks” against former Prime Ministers and Speaker Om Birla’s statement, where he said he had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to come to the House to prevent any unpleasant incident, after receiving information that some Congress MPs could come to the PM’s seat and “resort to an unprecedented incident”.Congress MP Manickam Tagore took to social media platform X to state that the Opposition has taken such a step in “extraordinary circumstances.”Tagore wrote, “The Opposition has placed its faith in constitutional propriety. While holding the Hon’ble Speaker in personal regard, we are pained and anguished by the consistent denial of opportunities to Opposition MPs to raise issues of public importance. After many years, a no-confidence notice against the Speaker has been moved–an extraordinary step born out of extraordinary circumstances.”Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress asked the Congress to submit an appeal to Speaker Om Birla before moving a no-confidence motion against him, Abhishek Banerjee said today.TMC said that the party will sign on the no-confidence motion if the Speaker does not act on the Opposition’s appeal within two to three days.
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