In the Modi 3.0 government, Telugu Desam Party is insisting on the Speaker’s post.. Why is this Speaker’s post important.. Let’s see how the Speaker’s post has brought down the Vajpayee government in the past.
In 1999, the Vajpayee government lost a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha. That too, Vajpayee lost power by a margin of just one vote.
This event is still a symbol of the speaker’s power even today. If you read this you will understand why Telugu Desam is pressing so much for the post of Speaker now.
BJP alliance: That one vote that decided Vajpayee’s fate was not the Speaker’s vote.. , but his decision led to the downfall of the then BJP government. Although the BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 240 seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, they did not get an absolute majority. Thus they formed the government with the support of the coalition parties.
According to reports, the Telugu Desam Party, which is now the second largest party in the NDA alliance after the BJP, has asked for the Speaker’s post. The point is that in 1999, when the Vajpayee government was overthrown by a single vote, the Speaker also belonged to the same Telugu Desam Party.
Vajpayee: The BJP won 182 seats in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections and became Prime Minister with the support of its coalition partners. Vajpayee was the Prime Minister then. However, in the same year i.e. 1999, a no-confidence motion was brought. A vote by then Odisha Congress leader Krithar Kamang led to the overthrow of the regime.
You may wonder why only Krithar Kamang’s vote is being talked about even though all the people have voted.. because Kamang was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Odisha just a few days before this trust vote was held. The BJP demanded that he should not be allowed to vote. However, he did not resign as Lok Sabha MP then. As a result, Telugu Desam Party’s GMC Balayogi, who was then Speaker, allowed him to vote.
Toppled Vajpayee government: That one vote brought down the Vajpayee government. Perhaps if Balayogi had not allowed him the votes on both sides would have been equal. But the vote on the motion of confidence was recorded as 269 – 270 as the Speaker allowed Krithar to vote.Thus a single vote overthrew the Vajpayee government.
The Speaker’s vote did not directly topple the Vajpayee government.. but his decision to allow Giridar to vote was the cause of the topple of the then MTA government. Similarly, when the coalition government was formed, Balayogi of the Telugu Desam Party was appointed as Lok Sabha Speaker in 1998 on the insistence of Chandrababu Naidu.
Same situation after 25 years: Now after 25 years, a similar situation has happened again.. Telugu Desam Party leader Chandrababu Naidu is once again asking for the post of speaker for his party.
Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister for the third time last Sunday. As 71 ministers have been sworn in with him, their portfolio details have also been published. However, it seems that a decision on who will be the Speaker is yet to be taken.
Speaker’s post: Usually without a single majority.. Like this, when a coalition government is formed, the speaker’s post becomes very important. Since the BJP had a single majority in the last 10 years, whoever they thought was the speaker. But now the presence of Telugu Desam (16 MPs) and JDU (12 MPs) has put pressure on the BJP.
There is a saying in Hindi “Ziska Speaker, Uski Sarkar”. It means that the speaker is somebody.. their government is going on. This perfectly illustrates how important the post of Speaker is when a coalition government is formed.
What will happen: But even in the central cabinet, it was reported that the alliance parties are asking for key portfolios. However, the BJP retained most of the key sectors. Therefore, it seems that they will try to keep the post of Speaker in their hands.
The Speaker is always considered to have supreme power. In case the Speaker is unable to attend the House, the Deputy Speaker will preside over the House. This position is very important as they have the responsibility of leading the House. We have to wait and see whether the Speaker’s post of such importance will be available to Telugu Desam again or whether the BJP will retain this too.
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