Om Birla’s partisan act, LoP cut off 20 times: Gaurav Gogoi

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Tuesday took up the opposition’s resolution to remove Speaker Om Birla, amid a heated debate in the House over who should chair the session. At the start of the debate, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi accused Birla of partisan behaviour. He said the Speaker had made “baseless” accusations against women opposition lawmakers and had repeatedly prevented Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi from raising “critical issues” in the House. AIMIM leaders after MP Mohammad Jawed read out the notice seeking to move the resolution Asaduddin Owaisi A point of order was raised questioning the decision to allow the BJP’s Jagdambika Pal to chair the proceedings as he was appointed by Birla as a chairperson panel member. Congress and TMC MPs also said that Pal was not elected by the House and stressed that the post of Deputy Speaker has remained vacant for the past seven years.Microphones used to silence MPs: GogoiCongress and TMC MPs also said that Pal was not elected by the House and stressed that the post of Deputy Speaker has been vacant for seven years.While TMC MP Saugata Roy said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju should move a motion to appoint a presiding officer specifically for the purpose, Rijiju said Owaisi’s claim was irrelevant as Pal was capable of presiding over the LS proceedings when the resolution was being considered.Pal then put the notice of motion for resolution to a vote and asked at least 50 MPs to stand in support. The notice was then accepted and Javed read out the resolution which was allowed to be discussed.When Rahul had to speak on the motion of thanks for the President’s address, Gaurav Gogoi raised questions about the way Birla was presiding over the House. “There is an expectation that the chairman will remain neutral. But a study of the uncorrected version will show how many times the LoP was interrupted. When the LoP stood up, another member was called,” Gogoi added.“Is this a parliamentary tradition that we want to show? Microphones are being used to silence the voices of MPs. This is in direct contradiction to the rituals of the House,” Gogoi said, pointing out how Shasshi Tharoor’s microphone was allegedly switched off midway through his speech on February 9.“When a member of Parliament wanted to speak on the motion of thanks, he was premeditatedly interrupted 20 times by the Speaker, members of the Chairman’s Group and senior members of the Treasury…” he said.