NEW DELHI: The Opposition on Wednesday set the stage for a showdown in the Lok Sabha with Speaker Om Birla admitting a no-confidence motion against the Centre moved by Congress member from Guwahati Gaurav Gogoi.
The Opposition is way short of numbers to inflict any damage on the ruling coalition but it hopes to get the optics right ahead of the Lok Sabha elections by coaxing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak on the Manipur situation.
Birla said the date for the discussion and voting on the motion will be decided after holding talks with leaders of all political parties. As per convention, once admitted the discussion on the motion has to be held within 10 days.
However, sources said the government may take up the motion only toward the fag end of the session as it is looking to push through a clutch of legislations first. It has already managed to pass important legislations, such as the Multi-State Cooperatives Societies Bill, the Biological Diversity Bill and the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha. The session will conclude on August 11.
But leaders of the 26-party Opposition alliance, INDIA, demanded that the Speaker immediately take up the motion for discussion after suspending all other business. “The tradition is that once the motion is accepted by the Speaker, all other business is suspended and discussion is initiated immediately,” Congress member Manish Tewari said, adding that if 100 or more MPs support the motion, then it will be inappropriate to carry out any other business in Parliament.
In all, there were two no-trust motions, one by the Congress and the other by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which though is not part of the Opposition alliance. This is the second no-confidence motion since the Modi government came to power in 2014. The first one was in 2018 by the Telugu Desam Party and backed by several other Opposition parties. The NDA defeated it 325-126.
Congress whip in the Lok Sabha, Manickam Tagore, said the Opposition was forced to move the motion as a last-ditch attempt, as the government had stonewalled their demand for a statement from the PM on Manipur. Another leader said that though the Opposition does not have the numbers, they will win the battle of ‘perception and morality’.
The NDA had 331 on its side with the BJP alone contributing 303 to the tally in the Lok Sabha. The Opposition bloc has 144 and the BRS nine. Fence-sitters such as the YSRCP and BJD have 22 and 12 members, respectively.
Shocked and horrified: U.S. The US on Wednesday said it is “shocked and horrified” by the strip-parade video of two women in Manipur and supports the Indian government’s efforts to seek justice for them. “We encourage a peaceful and inclusive resolution to the violence in Manipur,” Vedant Patel, Deputy Spokesperson of the State Department said
Abandoned houses torched Mobs set ablaze 30 abandoned houses and two buses in two separate incidents in Manipur. A mob of around 2,000 people torched the houses in the India-Myanmar border town of Moreh on Wednesday morning. Four others were also damaged. The houses belonged to Meiteis who left the place after violence broke out on May 3
