India TV Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma.
Om Birla was elected the Speaker of the 18th Lok Sabha by voice vote. After 10 years, Congress got the chair of the Leader of the Opposition. Rahul Gandhi became the Leader of the Opposition. There was no need for voting in the Speaker’s election. The opposition had fielded K. Suresh against Om Birla but at the last moment he backed out and did not demand a vote count. Therefore, Om Birla was elected by voice vote. Om Birla is the sixth Speaker after independence who is sitting on this chair for the second consecutive time. The big thing is that during the Speaker’s election, the entire NDA not only remained united but the government’s candidate also got support from parties like Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress and Akali Dal. During this time, a clear rift was seen in the opposition alliance. Trinamool Congress claimed that it wanted a vote count but the Protem Speaker ignored its demand. Congress took the decision of not holding voting without talking to Trinamool Congress. Congress leaders said that every party has its own opinion. Congress gave the message it wanted to by fielding its candidate, but Congress wanted to maintain the tradition of unanimously electing the president, so it backed out from voting. Mahua Manjhi of JMM, who is part of the opposition alliance, said that the government has the majority, we did not have the numbers, so why would we demand voting to lose? Many such different statements came from the opposition.
It was Rahul Gandhi’s first day in Lok Sabha as the leader of the opposition. Rahul Gandhi sat on the chair of the leader of the opposition but the first day as the leader of the opposition proved to be full of challenges. The unity of the opposition alliance was shattered. Actually, the name of the candidate for the election of the Speaker was announced by the Congress without asking Mamata Banerjee, so the leaders of Trinamool Congress were angry. Before coming to the House, Rahul Gandhi spoke to Mamata Banerjee on the phone, tried to convince her, after this Mamata Banerjee spoke to the MPs of her party but whispered such a mantra in their ears that became the cause of trouble for the Congress and Rahul Gandhi. In the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed to elect Om Birla as the Speaker, while from the opposition side, Arvind Sawant of Shiv Sena (Uddhav) proposed to make K. Suresh the Speaker. The Protem Speaker put the Prime Minister’s proposal for voice vote and the proposal was passed. Congress and other opposition parties did not demand voting on it. But after the resolution was passed, some Trinamool Congress MPs demanded voting which was rejected by Protem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab and Om Birla was declared the Speaker. The Speaker was elected but from here the tension between Congress and Trinamool Congress increased. Mamta Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee clearly said that he wanted voting in the Speaker’s election but the Protem Speaker did not listen to him, this is against parliamentary tradition and rules.
But Congress said the exact opposite. Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said that the purpose of making K. Suresh the candidate was only to protest against the dictatorship of the government, which was accomplished with the filing of the form. There was no need for voting after this. Pramod Tiwari said that Congress wanted to follow the tradition of electing the Speaker unanimously, that is why the party MPs did not demand voting. Tariq Anwar said that Trinamool Congress is definitely a part of the alliance but it is a separate party, it has its own opinion. Tariq Anwar said that Congress did not know that Trinamool Congress wants voting. The interesting thing is that the proposal to elect Congress MP K. Suresh as the Speaker was put forward by Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant, but Uddhav Thackeray’s party also did not demand voting. Sanjay Raut said that the opposition to Om Birla was symbolic and keeping in mind the traditions, the opposition did not conduct a division of votes. But the real thing was said by JMM MP Mahua Majhi. Mahua Majhi said that the government has the majority, the opposition did not have enough votes to win, hence vote division was not done.
One thing about Rahul Gandhi is amazing. He finds victory even in defeat. Before the elections, he claimed that we will win, Modi will not become the Prime Minister. Before the election of the Speaker, he said that if the opposition is given the post of Deputy Speaker, then only he will support Om Birla for the post of Speaker. When the government did not agree to the condition, K. Suresh was fielded. When defeat was clearly visible in numbers, he backed out from conducting the voting. And started saying that the Speaker should be elected unanimously, voting was not conducted to save this tradition. Now someone should ask that if he was so concerned about the tradition, then why did he field a candidate? Secondly, the election of the Speaker was Rahul’s first test as the leader of the opposition. Rahul failed in this too. He could not keep the opposition united. Earlier he said that K. Suresh has been fielded after talking to all the parties, but now it is clear that this decision of the Congress was one-sided. No discussion was held with Mamata about this. Today was the first day, the first issue, there was a split on the very first day. And from the attitude of Trinamool Congress, it seems that from time to time, Mamata Banerjee will keep giving such shocks to Rahul.
What Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav said after Om Birla was elected is worth listening to. Rahul said that this time the opposition is more powerful, the opposition has more MPs than the last Lok Sabha, so the speaker should give them equal opportunity, the opposition is also the voice of the people of the country, so he expects that the speaker will not suppress the voice of the opposition. Akhilesh Yadav took Rahul’s line forward in a different way. Akhilesh Yadav said that during Om Birla’s last tenure, 150 opposition MPs were suspended together, this should not happen again, the speaker should control not only the opposition but also the ruling party MPs. The dispute between the opposition parties in Parliament will now be seen every day. In fact, since the day Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister for the third time, the leaders of the opposition parties are not ready to accept that the people have elected Modi again. He has become the Prime Minister again. During the elections, Rahul Gandhi used to say, ‘Write it down. Modi will not be the Prime Minister of the country after June 4’. The election results came, NDA won the majority. But Rahul Gandhi kept saying that the people of the country have rejected Modi.
Then the opposition parties said that Nitish Kumar will turn back, Chandrababu will leave, Modi will not be able to form the government. When it was decided that Modi will become the Prime Minister, NDA government will be formed, then it was said that now there will be a fight over ministries, Chandrababu has asked for 10 ministries, Nitish Kumar has asked for the post of Deputy PM. But all these things proved to be useless. Then it was said that Chandrababu Naidu is adamant on the post of Speaker. This too turned out to be a mere rumour. Modi’s government was formed. It was formed very comfortably. The day the government was formed, Mallikarjun Kharge said that this government was formed by mistake, it can fall anytime. But the way the Speaker was elected today, it gave a befitting reply to those who made such statements. The Speaker’s election proved that the entire NDA is with Modi. Modi’s government is strong and not just NDA, at least 2 parties who did not contest the elections with NDA, YSR Congress and Akali Dal, supported Modi. On the other hand, a rift was seen in the opposition parties on the question of voting for the Speaker. And then when it came to passing the resolution against the emergency, different voices were heard. (Rajat Sharma)
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