Sipu Jha
NEW DELHI: Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday said that the debate and voting on the no-confidence motion against Lok Sabha Speaker will be taken up on March 9.“On March 9 in the Lok Sabha, we will have the debate on the no-confidence motion moved against the speaker,” Rijiju told news agency PTI.“It is the rule to take it up on the first day. There will be a vote following the debate,” he added.Additionally, a speedy review will be conducted as per the rules, news agency ANI reported citing sources.This comes after Congress MPs submitted a no-confidence motion against the Om Birla, signed by 118 MPs. The Opposition MPs alleged “blatantly partisan” conduct and that leaders of opposition parties were not allowed to speak.However, this is not the first time when a no-confidence against Chair has been moved by the opposition. Earlier in 2024, the opposition moved a similar motion against then Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar.History also records at least three instances since Independence when a no-confidence motion was moved to remove the Speaker. The first was against the first Lok Sabha Speaker, GV Mavalankar, in 1954, after MP Vigneshwar Misra alleged that the Speaker was not impartial.In 1966, opposition MPs moved a motion against Speaker Sardar Hukum Singh, with Madhu Limaye leading the charge and Deputy Speaker S V Krishnamoorthy Rao in the Chair.The third motion was moved on April 15, 1987, for the removal of Speaker Balram Jakhar by CPM MP Somnath Chatterjee, with Deputy Speaker Thambi Durai presiding. This motion was axed by the House.What was Nehru’s message to Congress MPs when oppn move a no-confidence motion against Speaker GV MavalankarThe first such situation surfaced on December 18, 1954, when the Opposition moved a resolution for the removal of then Speaker Mavalankar. It was admitted after over 50 members stood up in support, and a debate took place over it.India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru‘s message to Congress MPs during the debate in 1954 on the Opposition’s resolution to remove then Speaker GV Mavalankar was that they are not bound by any whip or direction, and that all legislators must consider the matter “regardless of party affiliations”.He had urged Lok Sabha MPs to look at the issue not through the lens of the party but as a matter concerning the dignity of the House.It was a fiery debate during which the Opposition, though weak in numbers, tore into Nehru and accused the speaker of being partisan.Intervening in the debate, Nehru said, “I would like to address the House, if I may, in my capacity and the high privilege of being the Leader of this House and not as a leader of the majority party. So far as this majority party is concerned, I would like to tell them that not one of them is bound by any whip or any direction: let them vote as they like. It is not a party matter. It is a matter for this House, for each individual, to consider, regardless of party affiliations.““Therefore, let us try to think of it not as a party issue but as members of this House, because this matter affects the hon. speaker, of course, but it affects the high dignity of this House as Parliament, it affects the first citizen of this country, that is, the speaker of this House,” he added.What is said about the speaker, what is done about the speaker comes back on each one of us who claim to be members of this House, the then PM said.“I wish members to realise this because I have felt sad and very sad ever since this matter came up before the House. We have known the speaker for many years and we have seen him function and it is possible that some of us may not have exactly the same opinion about him as others have; it is possible,” he said.“It has so happened that some of us have not particularly liked a decision of his or a ruling of his. It is one thing not to like a ruling or to disagree with it or even to feel, if I may say so, slightly irritated about something that has happened. These things happen. But, it is completely a different thing to challenge the bona fides of the very person in whose keeping is the honour of this House,” Nehru had said.“I do not say that it is not possible at all to raise a motion against the Speaker. Of course, the Constitution has provided it. Nobody challenges the right of the Opposition or any Member of the House to put forward this motion. I do not deny that right since it has been given by the Constitution. The point is not the legal right but the propriety; the desirability of doing it,” he said.Nehru then went on to strongly defend the speaker and hit out at the Opposition for questioning his bona fides.The Congress had a brute majority with over 360 members, and the resolution was negated by a voice vote.
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