Amid uproar in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Speaker Jagdambika Pal told opposition leaders who were disrupting proceedings that it was worth ₹9 million per day for the operation of the House. He accused the opposition of wasting taxpayers’ money by holding the House “hostage” to its demands.
He said, “It’s worth it ₹1.5 million per hour to run the House. ₹2.5 lakh is spent every minute ₹9 million will be spent in one day.”
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Criticizing the opposition members for their “irresponsible” and “immature” behaviour, Jagdambika Pal said, “Your irresponsible behavior is a waste of nine crore rupees in one day. This is public money.”
“What do you want? You are not even debating and you want the speaker not to come here… You want to make it a political agenda,” Pal said in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
He added that the speaker is the administrator here. “You submitted a motion of no confidence in the honorable Mr. Chairman. This motion was approved today. I allow the deputy who submitted the motion to speak,” said Pal.
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“But you don’t want to let the House run. The country is watching that the government wants to run the House, but you don’t want to. This is irresponsible behavior, immature behavior,” the chairman added.
Lok Sabha sees disruption
Pal’s remarks came as the Lok Sabha witnessed rowdy scenes on Monday, the first day the House met after the inter-session break, with opposition parties demanding a discussion on the West Asian crisis even as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made a suo moto statement.
The government accused the Congress and other opposition parties of stalling proceedings when the House was to take up a resolution moved by opposition members seeking the impeachment of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
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The opposition parties do not have the numbers to carry the resolution in the House. Birla has not been the speaker of the House since 118 opposition MPs briefed the bill in the first part of the budget session.
A debate on the no-confidence motion was due to take place on Monday, but it did not happen due to repeated adjournments of the House following protests by the opposition, which sought a debate on the situation in West Asia.
The House was first adjourned until 12:00 pm, then until 3:00 pm and later for the whole day as opposition members resorted to sloganeering against the government.
what exactly happened
When the meeting resumed at 3pm on Monday, opposition MPs continued to raise slogans. Jagadambika Pal, who presided over the meeting, urged them to maintain decorum and allow the House to pass a resolution against Birla.
Pal reminded the opposition that the motion of no confidence in the Speaker was already on the agenda of the House and their notice of adjournment, which demanded a debate on the crisis in West Asia, could not be accepted.
He accused the opposition of wasting taxpayers’ money – sort of ₹9 crores per day — by holding the House “hostage” to its demands. Pal described the opposition’s behavior as “immature and irresponsible”.
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He further alleged that the opposition was working with a “political agenda” to disrupt the proceedings by preventing the House from passing a resolution against Birla.
He said the government and the Speaker were willing to pass the resolution but the opposition was creating hurdles even though Birla was presiding over the House only after the no-confidence motion against him.
