New Delhi, March 11: An opposition move to remove Om Birla as speaker was defeated on Wednesday in the Lok Sabha after a heated debate, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah trashing Rahul Gandhi’s contention that he was not allowed to speak in the House, saying the Congress leader was frequently abroad during sessions and skipped discussions willfully as he “does not want to speak”.
The opposition members rushed into the Well of the House, protesting and raising slogans as the home minister was concluding his speech at the end of the two-day-long debate on the resolution. They demanded an apology for his certain remarks, which they said were “offensive”.
Jagdambika Pal, who was in the chair, urged the opposition to take their seats so that he could put the motion to a vote. Amid the din, the resolution was rejected by a voice vote, following which he adjourned the House for the day.
Speaker Birla was not present in the House during the entire period of the debate.
Earlier, interjecting in the debate, Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition (LoP), said he was stopped from speaking in the Lok Sabha on multiple occasions and asserted that the House does not represent one party but the whole country.
Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “has been compromised” and that it was the first time that an LOP was stopped for speaking in the House.
Responding to the debate, the home minister hit out at the opposition for bringing the motion for the removal of Birla as Speaker and asserted that the House will be run by its rules and not by the rules of a party.
“We never suppressed the voice of the opposition. The voice of opposition was suppressed during the Emergency when leaders were put in jail. False propaganda is being spread that opposition leaders are not allowed to speak. Rahul Gandhi said he is not allowed to speak. But the fact is he doesn’t want to speak in the Lok Sabha,” Shah said.
The home minister shared Rahul Gandhi’s attendance in the House and other statistics to rebut allegations of bias made by opposition members against the Speaker.
According to Shah, in the 17th Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi’s attendance was 51 per cent while the average was 66 per cent; in the 16th Lok Sabha, his attendance was 52 per cent while the average was 80 per cent.
Shah claimed that foreign trips were a major reason for Rahul Gandhi’s relatively low attendance during Parliament sessions. (PTI)
