While speaking during a debate in the lower house on the resolution to remove Birla as Speaker, several opposition MPs claimed that they were not getting the protection that they should from the chair and disruption of their speech by treasury benches had become the norm.
RJD’s Abhay Kumar Sinha said, “I have to say with regret, and for some time ago, the chair no longer represents independence of the House but has become a symbol of the ruling party’s tyranny. The chair has lost that impartiality which (Jawaharlal) Nehru ji and other makers of our Constitution expected.”
“This House even saw the black day when over 140 MPs were suspended in a day. Real democracy is the one in which even the poorest and the weakest feel that their voice can be heard… Here, whenever an (opposition) MP gets up to speak, what he gets from that side (Speaker) is No, No, No,” Sinha said on Wednesday.
Vijay Kumar Hansdak of the JMM said it is the Speaker’s second term and the most spoken word in the House after Nehru is “No”.
“When opposition MPs speak, they are disrupted, and that has become a tradition. Another tradition is that while MPs speak, the camera moves in another direction,” Handsak said.
Speaking on the resolution on Tuesday, Bajrang Manohar Sonwane of the NCP (SP) said, “Nobody is making any personal attack on Birla ji. We all know what will happen in voting, but we brought this no-confidence to highlight democratic rights that we have.”
“Like a table fan gives cooling only on one side… When Birla ji looks right, he has a smile and when he looks the other side, ‘No, No, No.’ You are doing the same thing, my party has given me time to speak,” he said, while addressing Sandhya Ray, who was in the chair.
