Moral strength is superior to the rights that individuals and institutions hold under a Constitution. This is more so with those holding high offices such as the elected leaders. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has extricated himself from a no-confidence motion against him in Parliament and is back in his august chair. With the treasury benches having a clear majority in the lower house, the defeat of the opposition motion was only to be expected. Yet, it raised an accusing finger against the Speaker. This was a rare scenario in Parliament. Those who have occupied the Speaker’s chair in the past conducted themselves with dignity and carried both sides with them. Tackling uproarious situations in Parliament, or even state assemblies, is not an easy task. The Watch and Ward would step in occasionally to even physically remove agitated members. The intention is to maintain the decorum and normalcy of the respective houses.
The task for the Speaker was easy in the last parliament, when the Opposition voice had been decimated to a whimper due to their abysmally low strength in the Lok Sabha. The Congress party as the principal opposition could not rightfully claim the Leader of Opposition status at one time due to their lack of sufficient numbers in the Lok Sabha. This time, however, in the last two years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third consecutive term, the Congress party itself has substantially increased its strength. This gave Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi the platform to hold forth on various issues with more vigour. So with his attempted speech in February, relating to the memoirs written by former army chief MM Naravane. The Speaker’s rejection of permission for the Leader of Opposition to speak on this sensitive subject led to the introduction of the no-trust motion against him. Allegations were that the Speaker went out of his way and sought to protect the Prime Minister and Defence Minister, against whom some critical references were made by Naravane in his “unpublished” book. In such serious matters, the nation and the Parliament have a right to know.
It should be the concern of every government in a democracy to zealously uphold the dignity of the systems and the positions that public representatives hold. Om Birla has caused embarrassment. Notably, in another instance, in August last, the Chief Election Commissioner came under a cloud vis-à-vis some of his actions. Gyanesh Kumar faced a test of his credibility and has not acquitted himself in a laudable manner. The Opposition in Parliament had accused him of election fraud, including tacit support to the ruling BJP for electoral malpractices in Bihar as also Karnataka and elsewhere. The irregularities in electoral rolls invited sharp comments against the CEC from the Supreme Court, which famously was seen as a “rap on his knuckles.” Worse, he showed the audacity to dub criticism against him as a criticism against the Indian Constitution! The Opposition had attempted an impeachment motion against him in Parliament, but did not proceed with that due to lack of sufficient numbers. These, thus, are testing times.
