Lok Sabha Set for Showdown as Opposition Moves to Remove Speaker Om Birla

The Parliament is set for a high-stakes resumption on Monday, March 9, after a recess in the ongoing Budget Session, with the Lok Sabha seeing much of the action. The session will also be taking up a resolution to remove Speaker Om Birla by the Congress-led Opposition.

Birla is a three-time MP from the Kota-Bundi seat and is serving his second successive term as Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

The debate and subsequently the voting on the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition against the Lok Sabha Speaker will be taken up on March 9, when the House reassembles after the recess.

The budget session with the President's address to the joint sitting of Parliament, on January 28 and went on recess on February 12.

In the first part of the session, the Lok Sabha witnessed disruptions since February 2, after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was disallowed by the chair from quoting from an article based on excerpts of former Army chief M M Naravane's "unpublished memoir", which has references to the India-China conflict of 2020.

On February 4, Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks due to opposition protests. In an unprecedented move, the Motion of Thanks was passed on February 5 without the customary speech by the prime minister. The speaker read out the Motion of Thanks to the President for her address and it was passed by a voice vote amid sloganeering by opposition members.

Birla said he received concrete information that many Congress MPs could carry out an "unexpected act" by reaching the spot where PM Modi sits and, therefore, he asked him not to come to the House to deliver his address. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra refuted this.

Eight opposition members were suspended for the remainder of the Budget session for unruly behaviour in the House.

In the last few days of the first part, the Speaker decided to step aside from his role as the presiding officer of the House after the opposition submitted the notice for his removal from office, alleging that he had acted in a "blatantly partisan" manner. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday described Om Birla as an outstanding Member of Parliament and "excellent" Speaker of the Lok Sabha, praising him for functioning above party lines and carrying everyone along while presiding over the House.

The prime minister's comments came two days ahead of the Lok Sabha taking up a motion of no-confidence.

"Om Birla ji is as outstanding a Member of Parliament as he is an excellent Speaker of the Lok Sabha. He is fully dedicated to the Constitution, and he maintains complete allegiance to parliamentary procedures.

"Today, he is not a member of any one side; he is completely above party lines when it comes to ruling side and opposition," Modi said during his virtual address at the foundation stone laying ceremony of Kota airport.

The prime minister said that when he sees Birla in the House, he feels that perhaps it is the influence of coming from the city of education, Kota, that as Lok Sabha Speaker, he stays in the role of taking everyone along like a good head of the family.

"And all our Honourable MPs present in the House, he handles them very well; he greatly respects their feelings and their requests. He is such a speaker who has the nature of giving the utmost respect to the MPs," he said.