Opp brings no-confidence motion against Govt, hopes to force PM statement on Manipur in Lok Sabha

The notice for the motion, moved by Gaurav Gogoi, Deputy Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, was backed by the Congress, DMK, TMC, BRS, NCP, Shiv Sena (UBT), JD(U) and Left parties.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s (BRS) Nama Nageswara Rao had also given notice to move a no-confidence motion against the government.

The K Chandrashekar Rao-led BRS, which has nine MPs and is not a part of the INDIA bloc, said it will support the no-confidence motion moved by the Opposition.

This is the second time that the Modi government is facing a no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha. The earlier no-confidence motion was moved by the TDP in July 2018. The government sailed through, securing 325 MPs votes against the motion and only 126 in its support.

Another attempt by the TDP and YSRCP to bring a no-confidence motion against the Modi government over the issue of granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh in March that year had not succeeded.

The Lok Sabha currently has a strength of 543 seats of which five are vacant. The BJP-led NDA has over 330 members, the Opposition alliance has over 140 and nearly 60 members belong to parties not aligned to any of the two groups.

While neutral parties YSRCP and BJD are expected to oppose the motion, the BSP is likely to abstain from voting when it takes place. The YSRCP has 22 MPs in Lok Sabha, BJD has 12 and the BSP nine.

While the Opposition maintained that the move was an idea of the INDIA bloc to highlight the developments in Manipur, the ruling party said the government is ready.

Congress MP Manickam Tagore said: “We feel that it is our duty to use this last weapon to break the arrogance of the government and make the Prime Minister speak on Manipur.”

The BJP slammed the Opposition. “They had done that in the last term also and people had taught them a lesson and will do so again,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said.

When the House met in the morning, Gogoi – he is MP from Kaliabor in Assam, a state which shares part of its border with Manipur – stood up and said he had submitted a notice on the no-confidence motion and it should be taken up.

Speaker Birla urged Gogoi to take his seat and let the House function. “You are an experienced MP and you know the rules,” he told Gogoi.

As Birla took up Question Hour, the Congress and other Opposition leaders ran to the Well of the House, shouting slogans and asking Prime Minister Modi to address the Lok Sabha on the Manipur situation. They held placards that read: ‘India for Manipur’ and ‘Nafrat ke khilaaf India ekjut ho gaye (India is united against hatred)’.

Meanwhile, BJP MPs from Rajasthan stood up and displayed red diaries to protest against the state government under Ashok Gehlot of the Congress. A few BJP members from West Bengal also raised slogans.

Soon afterwards, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings for 40 minutes. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi were present in the House.

After the House met at noon and papers were laid on the table, the Speaker informed the House that he had received a notice from Gogoi “expressing a want of confidence in the Council of Ministers under Rule 198. I request Gaurav Gogoi to seek the permission of the House for it”.

Birla said the notice states that “this House expresses want of confidence in the Council of Ministers”. After Gogoi sought the permission of the House for the motion, Birla asked members in favour of granting permission to admit the motion to stand up for a headcount.

Like Gogoi, Nama Nageswara Rao of the BRS, in his notice, urged the House to take up the motion under Rule 198 B of XVII of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.

Under the rule, a minimum of 50 members have to accept the motion and accordingly the Speaker will announce a date for discussion. The allotted date has to be within 10 days from the day the motion is accepted. Otherwise, the motion fails and the member who moved the motion will be informed. A motion of no-confidence can only be submitted six months after Parliament has rejected the previous one.

Despite the Opposition protest, the BJP appeared to be unfazed. According to sources in the ruling party, Prime Minister Modi advised his MPs Tuesday not to be disheartened or get distracted by the Opposition’s attack or their tactics against the government. The party, he said, should remain steadfast in its efforts to return the NDA government to power in 2024.

A no-confidence motion to persuade the PM to speak in the House still remains a rare move. Since Independence, only 28 no-confidence motions, including this one, have been moved in the Lok Sabha. In 2003, a no-trust motion was introduced by the Congress against the Vajpayee government but the BJP managed to defeat it. In 2008, when his Congress-led government faced a crisis over the India-US nuclear deal, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had moved a trust motion to prove his government’s majority and won.