32 PARLIAMENTARIAN l juLy 2019
avoiding provisions of anti-defection
law.BJp’s reply
BJP was peeved. Advani called this a
dangerous precedent, little realising
that his party was going to adopt a
similar strategy in Uttar Pradesh.
When BSP separated from BJP,
former’s MLAs broke away in groups.
But, even if aggregated they wouldn’t
become one third of the original party
strength.
Then Assembly Speaker Keshari
Nath Tripathi, devised another
ingenious way - split within split which
meant that one third of BSP MLAs
split from the original party. So anti-
defection law didn’t apply. Later one
third of this splinter group again broke
away and went back to the original
party. Again no anti-defectionprovision could be invoked. But, in
reality, all but one split happened only
in paper and signatures were forged to
formalise the splits. However, he didn’t
adjudicate on BSP’s application to
disqualify the splinter group, keeping
the case hanging for four years.
It is because of the benefits like
these that the ruling parties want a
Speaker who shouldn’t be too rigid in
his approach towards work. He needs
to oblige the ruling party in hours of
need. BJP doesn’t yet have majority in
the Rajya Sabha. That means it can’t
get contentious bills like a Triple Talaq
passed from both Houses of
Parliament. Would bills like these be
pushed as Money Bills, avoiding Rajya
Sabha, like BJP did for Aadhaar? Only
time will tell. But, it does need a
Speaker like Om Birla to serve the
purpose.of laTe, speakers
like sumiTra
mahajan have
Been defending The
minisTers. Birla is
likely To Take her
legacy To a whole
new depTh... wiTh
no securiTy in
The conTinuiTy of
office, The speaker
is dependenT on his
poliTical parTy for
reelecTion, making
him suscepTiBle To
parTy pressureslok saBha speaker|om Birla
I
F one looks at the appointments of the last three Lok
Sabha speakers, a strange pattern seems to emerge.
One that suggests that once appointed as the speaker,
a Lok Sabha member doesn’t get to return to the House
next time. Take the case of left stalwart Somnath
Chatterjee who was appointed the speaker of the 14th Lok
Sabha. Subsequently, his relations with leadership of CPI
(M) turned bitter, leading to his expulsion from the party.
He was succeeded by Congress MP Meira Kumar asthe speaker of the 15th Lok Sabha.
However, Kumar lost the 2014 Lok Sabha elections
from her pocket borough in Sasaram parliamentary
constituency to BJP’s Chhedi Paswan.
Kumar was then succeeded by eight-time MP and BJP
veteran, Sumitra Mahajan. However, Mahajan had to sit
out of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls after the BJP forced 75
years age ceiling for contesting Lok Sabha elections. Does
the same fate await Om Birla?in a growing pattern, the last few speakers have never
come back a second term, for one reason or the otherNever Twice!
Somnath Chatterjee Meira Kumar Sumitra Mahajan