Opposition urges Speaker Om Birla to be impartial, allow voice of people in the House
NEW DELHI, JUN 26 : Opposition leaders on Wednesday congratulated Om Birla for being elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha for a second term but urged him to stay impartial.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi while congratulating Om Birla on behalf of the entire INDIA alliance noted that the House represents the voice of people and hoped that the Opposition would be allowed to raise the voice of people in the House.
“I’d like to congratulate you for your successful election…I congratulate you on behalf of the entire INDIA alliance. This House represents the voice of people of India…Of course the government has political power, but the opposition also represents the voice of India’s people,” Rahul said.
Pointing out that this time the opposition represents a significantly wider section of the Indian people than last time, Gandhi stressed that it was very important that the voice of the opposition is heard in the House.
“The idea that you can run the House efficiently by silencing the voice of opposition is a non-democratic idea. This election has shown that the people of India expect the opposition to defend the Constitution of this country and we are confident that by allowing Opposition to speak, you will do your duty of defending the Constitution of India,” the Congress MP told the newly-elected Speaker.
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said he hoped that actions like suspension of MPs would not be taken as they hurt the dignity of the House.
Yadav said he also hoped that Birla would be impartial towards the opposition and give its leaders equal opportunity.
“We believe you will move forward without discrimination and as the Speaker, you will give equal opportunity and respect to every party. Impartiality is a great responsibility of this great post. You sitting here are the chief justice of the court of democracy,” Yadav said.
“We expect that the voice of no public representative will be suppressed and actions like suspensions which hurt the dignity of the House will not be taken,” he said.
Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay also hoped that Om Birla would be impartial towards the opposition.
Bandyopadhyay said the functioning of the House always depends on the attitude of the treasury benches and the House belongs to the opposition.
“It is my firm belief and so far parliamentary democratic practice is concerned, the House belongs to the opposition. This attitude needs to be adopted by the ruling party,” he said.
He mentioned the suspension of opposition MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha and said it was “not desirable”.
Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party MP Akhilesh Yadav speaking in the House during the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha, in New Delhi, Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
Om Birla wins first election for Lok Sabha Speaker’s post in about five decades
He also said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned several bills being passed, many were passed without any debate.
DMK’s Baalu said that now that Birla is the Speaker, he does not belong to any party anymore.
“You might have been elected by my BJP friends (but) hereafter there is no politics between you and the powers. You don’t have any colour also. You have to treat the opposition and the ruling party in the same manner. Kindly be impartial,” he said.
-PTI
