A motion of no confidence by opposition parties against Speaker Om Birla was rejected by a vote on Wednesday 11 March.
Amid protests and sloganeering from the opposition demanding an apology from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Member of Parliament Jagdambika Pal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who presided, announced that the no-confidence motion had been rejected.
The home minister had earlier hit out at the opposition for moving a proposal to remove Birla from the post of chairman. The opposition objected to some of Shah’s remarks, started shouting slogans, disrupted the proceedings and demanded an apology from him.
Shah launched a scathing attack on the opposition in the Lok Sabha over the no-confidence motion against Speaker Om Birla. Shah accused the opposition of undermining parliamentary traditions and of raising unjustified doubts about the neutrality of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
Shah said the move was unprecedented in recent decades and reflected badly on parliamentary politics, noting that when the Bharatiya Janata Party-ledNational Democratic Allianceshe was in opposition, she never tried to move a motion of no confidence in the Speaker and instead acted as a constructive opposition.
“During the time BJP-NDA was in the opposition, it never moved a no-confidence motion against the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. We worked as a constructive opposition and preserved the dignity of the post of Speaker,” Shah said in response to the two-day debate on the opposition’s resolution against Birla.
Birla was not present in the House throughout the debate.
The motion was rejected by voice vote
Amid the slogans, Pal called on the opposition to take their seats so he could put the motion to a vote. But as the protests continued, he sought a vote in the House, and the resolution was defeated by voice vote; he then adjourned the House for the day.
The no-confidence motion against Birla was passed by several opposition leaders who alleged that he had acted in an “unabashedly partisan” manner in the House.
Opposition leaders also accused the speaker of making certain false claims against Congress members when he talked about some “unexpected action” in the Lok Sabha and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to come to the House to reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address.
The motion was signed by as many as 118 opposition MPs who alleged that the Speaker was acting “partisan” after Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi was allegedly barred from speaking in the House.
Congress MP Mohammad Jawed moved the motion in the house. The Lok Sabha debated the motion for about two days.
