Government confident it did better in battle of wits with opposition

NEW DELHI: Any hope of normalcy returning to LS was apparently dashed when opposition stepped up their offensive and submitted a notice for the removal of the Speaker. In a twist, it turned out to be the end of a week-long impasse, laying bare faultlines within the opposition as pragmatic voices wanting to be heard on key issues in the House prevailed over those favouring uncompromising rigidity and confrontation.

LS functioned normally even though the govt did not agree to the conditions set by Congress: allowing LoP Rahul Gandhi to speak, rectification of the Speaker’s “baseless” claim that he had to request PM not to speak during the debate on motion of thanks to the President for her address in view of plans of Congress’ MPs to do something unprecedented, and a probe into why BJP MP Nishikant Dubey’s mic was not switched off when he attacked Nehru-Gandhi family.




The prevailing view within govt was that it had come out better in the battle of wits by not making any concession to the key Congress demand of allowing Rahul to speak first and revoking the suspension of eight MPs to defuse the crisis that had stalled proceedings.

What helped the govt defuse the impasse was the keenness among some key regional BJP rivals for LS to function and allow discussion on regional concerns. Bengal and Tamil Nadu, where TMC and DMK are in office, are headed to polls, while political temperature is rising in UP, where Samajwadi Party is the main opposition party, with elections only a year away.

While TMC made its differences clear by not signing the notice, MPs from different non-Congress oppn parties suggested many of them did not want the first half of the session to be consumed by the deadlock.

Across the aisle, BJP’s allies stood firm with the govt, backing the Speaker and criticising the opposition for targeting a constitutional office.

Taking high moral ground, Birla decided not to attend till the notice is disposed of, signalling the matter may be taken up later in the session.
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