Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 26: An opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion in the Narendra Modi government over the current ethnic violence in Manipur was admitted by the Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla on Wednesday.
Admitting the motion, the speaker said he would discuss with all the parties and finalise a date for taking up the no-trust motion. The violence in Manipur has been a key reason for the continuous logjam in both the Houses of Parliament since the Monsoon Session began on July 20.
Deputy leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi had moved the no-confidence motion against the Modi government. The Congress submitted the no-trust motion notice at 9.20 a.m. at the Lok Sabha table office. Only 13 working days of the monsoon session remain and the Lok Sabha Speaker can take up to 10 days to schedule a no-confidence motion debate as per procedure.
The motion, filed by Congress’s Gaurav Gogoi, needed the backing of 50 members in the house, a number they easily achieved with the back of other Congress lawmakers as well as those opposition members belonging to the I.N.D.I.A. coalition.
MPs belonging to the Opposition alliance bloc INDIA, including Congress parliamentary party chief Sonia Gandhi, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, DMK’s TR Baalu and NCP leader Supriya Sule, stood up for the head count when the Lok Sabha speaker presented the motion.
A Separate no-trust motion was also filed by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) but the party having only nine members could not muster the requisite support for admission. , which has only nine members in the House and hence could not muster the necessary support.
The combined opposition do not have enough members to cause any threat to the Modi government but the party leaders said it was the only instrument available for the parties to corner the government on the Manipur issue and force the prime minister Narendra Modi to respond in the House on the controversial issue. In the 543-member Lok Sabha, the ruling NDA currently has a strength of 331. The Opposition I.N.D.I.A alliance has 144 members in the house.
Opposition members have resorted to protests and sloganeering in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, forcing repeated adjournments of the two Houses since the commencement of the monsoon session of Parliament on July 20. The government has said it is ready for discussion on Manipur but the opposition parties are pressing for discussion under a rule which also entails voting.
The Congress had issued a three-line whip, asking all its Lok Sabha members to be present for a parliamentary party meeting it held at 10.30 a.m. Floor leaders of the INDIA bloc’s 26 parties also met at the office of Congress president and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge as a no-trust motion needs the support of at least 50 or more members to be adopted in the House.
Soon after the no-confidence motion was admitted by the speaker, a video of a statement by Modi in the House in 2019 was shared by the government sources on the social media called it a “perfection prediction” of the prime minister about the state of political affairs in the country five years later.
In the video of February 7, 2019 of a debate on the President’s speech during the Budget session, the Prime Minister is heard saying that the opposition should prepare for yet another no trust motion in 2023. He was referring to his government defeating such a motion the year before. “I want to offer my best wishes… prepare so much that you get a chance to bring a no-confidence again in 2023,” Modi said in Lok Sabha, drawing laughter and desk-thumping from ruling party MPs.
“This is Samarpan Bhav (service) that from two (MPs) we are sitting here (in power). And the result of ahankar (arrogance) is that from 400, you have come down to 40. Look where you are today…” he had sneered, without naming the Congress. Congress leader Sonia Gandhi was present along with other senior party leaders when the PM made the comments.
In 2018, the government won a no confidence vote moved by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of N Chandrababu Naidu and backed by many opposition parties.
