NEW DELHI: Incensed over the Lok Sabha Speaker, Shivraj Patil’s ruling allotting separate seats to the breakaway faction of the Janata Dal, the National Front-Left alliance may consider bringing a motion of no-confidence against the Speaker.
Though a final decision in this regard will be taken on Monday at a meeting of the NF-LF alliance, the Janata Dal president, S.R. Bommai, on Sunday did not Rule out the possibility of moving a motion expressing lack of confidence in the Speaker. Bommai who was addressing a press conference here charged the Speaker with having succumbed to the pressure brought upon by the prime minister in giving his unprecedented ruling allotting separate seats to the breakaway faction of his party. The Speaker had lost all his moral authority to decide on the issue, Bommai said, accusing the former of having acted with sinister motives.
The Dal leadership also rejected the Speaker’s offer of holding discussions on the issue. The Speaker had on Saturday invited Bommai for talks. However, the Dal president turned down the invitation saying no discussions were possible unless the Speaker agreed to keep his ruling in abeyance. There is also a strong possibility of the proceedings in the House being blocked on Monday by the protesting Janata Dal members and those from the Left parties.
Yet, the Dal leadership has not ruled out the option of bringing the motion against the Speaker. It feels that the motion, even if it is defeated would constitute a moral indictment of the Speaker. A final decision in this regard will, however, be taken in consultation with the Left parties as well as other constituents of the National Front.
Bommai also accused for the first time the prime minister, for his direct complicity in the entire episode. The sponsored defections and splits that have taken place in Telugu Desam, Shiv Sena, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Janata Dai over the past one year point an accusing finger towards the prime minister and his political aides who now include the Speaker as well, Bommai charged.
Bommai also questioned the Speaker’s jurisdiction to interfere with the right of a political party to expel its members. He along with the leader of the JD group in the Rajya Sabha claimed that the Speaker had gone back on the stand he had himself taken on the issue of expulsion of Ajit Singh and three others from the party. On that occasion the Speaker had held that the expulsions were an internal affair of the JD and did not concern him.
They said the Speaker’s stand also went against the stand taken by the Court which, when approached by Ajit Singh, had upheld the right of the party president to expel the members of the party.
The JD leaders also pointed out that the Speaker decision to eat the group of 20 MPs including eight expelled from the party earlier reversed his own ruling by which he had declared the expelled members as separate. Both Bommai and Reddy maintained that each of the eight members declared separate was an independent entity in his own right and could not be clubbed together.
They also pointed out that the former Lok Sabha speaker, Balaram Jakhar, had declared unattached VP Singh, Arif Mohammad Khan, Arun Nehru and Satpal Malik following their expulsion from the Congress (I). They further recalled that as presiding officers of the Rajya Sabha both R. Venkatramanas well as Dr. S.D. Sharma had taken similar decisions with regard to Pranab Mukherjee and Chimanohai Mehta, who was expelled from the JD recently.
Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 28, 1992
