A day after a face-off in the Lok Sabha over Speaker Om Birla abruptly adjourning the House after noting that members, especially Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, should conduct themselves “in a manner that maintains the high standards and dignity” of Parliament, a delegation of INDIA bloc parties met Birla on Thursday and raised concerns over a range of issues, including the “politicisation of the statement made by Birla outside the House”. A letter was submitted by the delegation to Birla, which The Indian Express has learnt contained eight broad points, including “non-appointment of Deputy Speaker in Lok Sabha”, “denial of speaking opportunity to the Leader of Opposition (LoP)”, and “disregard for Business Advisory Committee (BAC) decisions”. The other issues raised in the letter were “neglect and rejection of adjournment motions”, “neglect of Private Members’ Bills and resolutions”, “exclusion of key ministries in Budget and Demand for Grants discussions”, “lack of discussions under Rule 193” (which allows for a discussion on matters of urgent public importance without voting), and “microphones of Opposition members being switched off”. Floor leaders of Opposition parties, including the Congress’s Gaurav Gogoi, the DMK’s A Raja, the Samajwadi Party’s Dharmendra Yadav, the TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Arvind Sawant, and NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule, met Birla. Representatives of the RJD, IUML, MDMK and RSP were also present at the meeting. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Gogoi, Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, said, “We expressed our shared issues about the way the party in power is going against Parliament’s rules, conventions and culture of the House… We submitted a letter. We raised the issue that the Speaker read his statement yesterday. It wasn’t clear which subject and moment he was talking about. He said that members, and especially the LoP, should follow Rule 349, but he did not clarify which specific incident he was referring to. We saw that outside in the evening, this incident was politicised and propaganda was spread. We told the Speaker the same thing—that his statement was being politicised outside the House.” Asked if the Speaker divulged what he was referring to on Wednesday when he spoke of maintaining “dignity in the House”, Gogoi said, “I don’t think it is suitable to discuss what the Speaker said in the meeting.” On Wednesday, when the House was abruptly adjourned, Rahul Gandhi spoke to reporters in the Parliament complex and said the “House was not being run as per democratic norms” and claimed that as the LoP, he was not allowed to speak in the House.
