Will the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Allow Opposition to Speak This Time?

The Wire

7 days ago

Government
The roles played by presiding officers, Om Birla and Jagdeep Dhankhar (now retired), in not allowing opposition leaders to speak is well known.
In the context of the much awaited discussion on Operation Sindoor in both the Houses of Parliament the big question agitating all concerned is if opposition leaders (some of whom were enlisted by Modi regime in the all party delegation to explain to rest of the world about it) would be allowed by Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla, and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman, Harivansh, to speak in parliament without the Chairs coming in their way to express their views.
This critical issue is being flagged because in the past neutrality of Birla and Singh as presiding officers has been questioned in the past because they did not allow opposition leaders to speak properly on crucial issues. In case of Singh, he made an egregious blunder of violating the article 100 of the Constitution by not allowing DMK MP Tiruchi Siva's demand for actual voting on agriculture bills in September 2020 and later when confronted with irrefutable evidence against his action he justified it on the specious grounds that the House was not in order.
Modi has treated the opposition with disdain and it was reflected in his statement in parliament, ' Ek akela bhari (he alone weighs heavily)," over the opposition. And when he faced heavy odds and his image as a strong leader suffered hugely after US President Donald Trump announced the cease fire, four days after Operation Sindoor, and India did so a few hours later, he decided to send all party delegations to explain to the leaders and peoples of the world in several countries in defence of Operation Sindoor. Now that opposition leaders did their best at the global level, they can't face hurdles from the aforementioned presiding officers in the Parliament of India, representing the supreme will of the people, to articulate their views and opinions
Nadda's statement on expunction
Jagdeep Dhankhar, the former vice-president of India and chairman, Rajya Sabha, resigned from his office ostensibly on health grounds on July 21, the first day of the current monsoon of parliament, ostensibly because he incurred the wrath of Modi regime after he allowed Leader of Opposition of the House, Mallikarjun Kharge, to speak in detail about the massacre 26 civilians in Pahalgam following the self-admitted intelligence failure by the Lt. Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha. Kharge flagged the claims of Trump on 25 occasions that he had brokered cease fire and referred to statements of India's multiple defence officials about the loss of fighter jets by India. Leader of the House J.P. Nadda very surprisingly charged that Kharge shared all the details of Operation Sindoor and asserted by saying, 'Whatever I will say will go on record. You should know", implying that nothing the opposition said would be recorded. Those remarks were not expunged by Dhankhar.
This clearly indicated that the opposition leaders might face hurdles while participating in the discussions on Operation Sindoor in the Parliament.
Earlier unenviable record of presiding officers
Even earlier, the roles played by presiding officers, Birla and Dhankhar in 2023 in not allowing opposition leaders to speak was remarked upon scathingly by editorials of The Hindu and Indian Express. The Hindu editorial titled 'Discipline and discussion' said' … Parliament is the forum where the government is answerable to the people' sharply charging that the decision of the Chairman of Rajya Sabha, and the Speaker of Lok Sabha to expunge parts of the speeches of Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi made in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha respectively on the Adani issue constituted a travesty of democracy. It noted, 'Parliament is the platform where the Opposition has the responsibility to ask questions of the government, which the Council of Ministers has the responsibility to answer'. It proceeded to indict the presiding officers by stating that it would be a mockery of democratic values '…if the Opposition is penalised for seeking accountability from the government, which in turn is allowed to hide behind rules and obfuscate the issue.'
The Indian Express, in its editorial very derisively wrote, 'By engaging in what looks like a partisan political exercise against the Opposition, V.P. Dhankar undermines the parliament, his office.'
During the 17th Lok Sabha, several opposition MPs found it difficult to discharge their duties as effective legislators due to the restrictions they faced while participating in the discussions in the House. When a no-confidence motion was moved by the opposition parties against the Narendra Modi government and raging violence in Manipur was discussed, two MPs, R.K. Ranjan Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who was a minister of state for external affairs in the Modi cabinet, and Lorho S. Pfoze of the Naga People's Front (supporting the Modi government), were told to keep quiet because the Union home minister Amit Shah was speaking on behalf of the government.
Later Pfoze, while speaking to Barkha Dutt, said with anguish, 'The government should have first asked me to speak even if I didn't make a formal request. I wanted to speak on behalf of my people.'
He also remarked that fifty of the questions he asked on Manipur were not taken up, except one on education.
Those examples show how the presiding officers did not allow opposition MPs to speak up and even some of the ruling party members were prevented from speaking when the Modi regime faced embarrassing situations in the context of Manipur violence. In fact the post of deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha, which by convention is held by the opposition, has remained unfilled for six years; this too shows the ruling party's disregard for parliamentary norms.
So the use of services of opposition leaders on Operation Sindoor must be accompanied by allowing them to speak to hold the government to account on the floor of the parliament.
S.N. Sahu served as an officer on special duty to former President KR Narayanan. He was earlier joint secretary in the Rajya Sabha secretariat.
This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.
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