New Delhi: Accusing Speaker Om Birla of “blatant partisanship” in the running of the Lok Sabha, a joint opposition barring Trinamool Congress Tuesday submitted a notice for his removal from office, escalating the simmering tensions between the govt and the opposition to a point that raises questions about the future of their working relationship. Birla has decided to stay away from the LS proceedings till the no-confidence resolution is settled. He could have continued until the resolution was formally moved in the House. There are indications that the motion against him would now be taken up on March 9 when Parliament is scheduled to convene after the recess. The twin prompt moves reflect a desire to take the moral high ground as well as confidence in NDA’s numbers.The notice under Article 94 (c) – signed by 119 MPs – was submitted to the Lok Sabha secretary general by Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh and Mohammed Jawed Tuesday afternoon, after the presiding officer did not again allow Rahul Gandhi to speak at the start of the proceedings and then at the start of zero hour, which both led to adjournments.Draft resolution accuses Birla of ‘openly backing ruling party’Om Birla had objected to Gandhi insisting on citing the unpublished book of Gen M M Naravane to attack the govt. It was suggested that the leader of the opposition’s brief remarks about the opposition’s grievances would be followed by their cooperation to start the stalled discussion on the Budget.The short draft resolution attached to the removal notice for discussion in the House accuses Birla of “openly espousing the version of the ruling party (sic) on all controversial matters”.The anti-BJP camp clinched the fraught move against the Chair within a day of floating it at a meeting that was called to brainstorm on the future course of action in the wake of the govt-Chair’s repeated refusal to allow Gandhi to speak so long as he did not commit not to cite from the memoir of the retired general, which was behind the protests and the logjam. It marked an alacrity of action not seen in the INDIA bloc’s strategic moves in the 18th Lok Sabha. The bigwigs of the bloc signed the notice — Akhilesh Yadav and Dharmendra Yadav (SP), T R Baalu (DMK), N K Premachandran (RSP), E T Mohd Basheer (IUML), Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi (NC), Nilesh Lanke (NCP), Misha Bharti (RJD), and members of JMM among others.While K C Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra among other MPs signed for Congress, Rahul Gandhi as LoP did not put his name to the notice. Sena UBT misssed signing the petition owing to miscommunication over the timing of submission.However, TMC stood out for its objection to the initiation of the extreme step at this stage, with Abhishek Banerjee telling reporters that the opposition should exhaust other steps before resorting to “no confidence”. As reported by TOI, he suggested that the opposition write a letter to the Speaker first. While denying any objection to the move, Banerjee argued that a nuanced approach was preferable, citing that TMC’s push for impeachment of CEC Gyanesh Kumar has come only after the party has gone to court, met the watchdog and also written to him. A Trinamool neta even said the party would sign the notice if the opposition waited till Thursday.The notice has listed the stormy events of the ongoing budget session as evidence of Birla’s “partisan manner”. It starts with the Chair’s denial of permission to Rahul Gandhi to speak on Feb 2 on former Army chief M M Naravane’s book about the 2020 Chinese aggression as part of his speech on the motion of thanks. The other complaints include Birla’s observation — made a day after PM Modi’s no-show for his scheduled response to the motion of thanks — that female MPs from Congress posed a threat to the PM which could have resulted in an “unprecedented incident”; suspension of eight opposition MPs; and permission to a BJP MP (Nishikant Dubey) to “make wholly objectionable and personalised attacks” on two former PMs without any reprimand, and the absence of action against him as demanded by the opposition.
