AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 13POWER POINT
SACHIDANANDA MURTHYILLUSTRATION BHASKARAN [email protected]E
ven though the budget session of the new
Parliament is getting extended by at least
a week, the Narendra Modi government
is not in a hurry to elect a deputy speaker of
Lok Sabha. The post has normally gone to an
opposition member, but Modi, in his previous
term, had decided not to offer the post to the
Congress, which was the largest opposition
group. Instead, the prestigious post went to M.
Thambidurai, leader of the AIADMK group,
which was second largest. BJP spokespersons
had argued that convention was to offer the
post to an opposition party,
and that the Congress lacked
the numbers to be officially
recognised as the opposition
party by the Lok Sabha speaker.
Since the BJP was wooing the
AIADMK for support in the
Rajya Sabha, Thambidurai
was considered part of
the “friendly” opposition.
Interestingly, in this year’s
election, the AIADMK
joined the BJP-led National
Democratic Alliance, but was reduced from 37
MPs to a single member. Even Thambidurai lost.
As the Congress once again lacks the numbers
to be officially recognised as the opposition
party, the BJP has hinted that it will not offer
the post to a Congress member. The BJP cites
earlier instances where the Congress as the
ruling party failed to offer the post to the
main opposition party: In 1980, Indira Gandhi
chose G. Lakshmanan of the DMK, an ally of
the Congress, and in 1985 Rajiv Gandhi chose
Thambidurai, who was from the ally AIADMK.
The convention of offering the deputy
speakership to the opposition—practised in
European countries—came into vogue first
in 1977, when Janata Party prime minister
Morarji Desai gave it to the Congress, which
chose G. Murahari. In seven new Lok Sabhas
from 1989 to 2009, the practice was followedby prime ministers V.P. Singh, P.V. Narasimha
Rao, H.D. Deve Gowda, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and
Manmohan Singh.
In 2014, the Congress made a major issue of
its leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge,
being denied the leader of the opposition status
by speaker Sumitra Mahajan, and protested the
deputy speakership being given to the AIADMK.
But now, the Congress does not have high
expectations as Speaker Om Birla has not given
recognition to Congress group leader Adhir
Ranjan Chowdhury as leader of the opposition.
The speculation swirling in
parliamentary circles is that
the BJP is looking at picking the
deputy speaker from regional
parties that have ten or more
members in the new Lok Sabha.
These parties are the YSR
Congress and the Biju Janata Dal,
which have no animus towards
the BJP.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister
Jagan Mohan Reddy is hoping
for a better deal for his state from
the Modi government than what his predecessor
Chandrababu Naidu got. Similarly, Odisha Chief
Minister Naveen Patnaik, after a bitter fight with
the BJP in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections,
has spoken of constructive cooperation with the
Central government for his state’s development.
The favourite among Lok Sabha members
is BJD veteran Bhartruhari Mahtab, a senior
parliamentarian who has been active in the house
and in parliamentary committees.
Indications are that the government may
keep the deputy speaker’s chair vacant till the
winter session is summoned by the president in
November. In 2014, too, Thambidurai was elected
only in August, during the second session of the
new Lok Sabha. All eyes will now be on Modi
as he would not only decide the candidate, but
also the message that would be sent out by the
selection.Deputy speaker: stick and carrot