Oppn takes no-trust vote route to force Modi to speak on Manipur

The alliance of 26 opposition parties INDIA is likely to submit a notice for no-confidence motion against the government in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday to make Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak in Parliament on the Manipur violence, senior leaders of the front said.

IMAGE: MPs of oppposition parties alliance, INDIA, protest in Parliament premises demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement on Manipur ethnic violence in both houses, during the ongoing monsoon session, in New Delhi. Photograph: Rahul Singh/ANI Photo

The alliance has already drawn up a draft of the notice and is in the process of getting the necessary 50 signatures from MPs.

The group has to submit the notice before 10 am for it to be read out by the speaker in the House on Wednesday.

The Congress has also issued a whip in Lok Sabha for its members to be present in its parliamentary office by 10.30 am “to discuss some important issues.”

The decision for the motion was taken in a meeting attended by INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) MPs in Parliament on Tuesday morning, the leaders said.

At the meeting of the opposition leaders, it was decided after weighing various options that this would be an effective way to compel the government to initiate a discussion on the issue, one of the alliance leaders said.

The opposition strategy to corner the government on Manipur will continue in the Rajya Sabha as well, the leader said.

“We discussed that if we move a notice of no-confidence motion with 50 MP signatures, the PM will have to speak. If he still doesn’t speak, it will send a clear message that he is running away. It is a matter of perception. We are working on it now and we will make sure we submit it before 10 am tomorrow,” said a senior leader of the alliance.

He also said that the two largest parties of the opposition alliance INDIA — the Congress and the Trinamool Congress — have been in talks over using the no-confidence motion route to compel the Prime Minister to speak on Manipur in Parliament.

“The overall parliamentary strategy is in place for the INDIA parties. Tactics to execute that strategy evolve every day.  Rule 198 of the Lok Sabha states the procedure of moving a no-confidence motion. Picture abhi baaki hai (the story is still unfolding)!” said Derek O’Brien, Trinamool’s leader in the Rajya Sabha.

Asked whether the opposition will move the motion against the government on the Manipur issue, Congress senior spokesperson Manish Tewari said in the parliamentary system and tradition, all options are open and the options in the rules are all available before the opposition.

“As we have pointed out in the last three or four days, the reasons why we are insistent that the prime minister must address both houses of Parliament on the question of Manipur is because of the sensitivity and the depravity that Manipur has unfortunately witnessed in the past 78 to 80 days.

“Therefore under those circumstances, we are steadfast in our demand and as I pointed out that in a democracy all instrumentalities which are available under the parliamentary rules always remain open,” Tewari said.

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram also said if there was any way to get the prime minister to speak, the no-confidence motion route might be the correct way.

“If we are going to employ any method to force the prime minister, who has been disrespecting Parliament, who does not come to the house, who doesn’t answer questions in the house, this would be a welcome step,” he said.

His party colleague, Gaurav Gogoi, also said that the INDIA bloc’s objective was to make the prime minister speak.

“The Opposition has only one aim that PM Modi must speak in Parliament. Unfortunately, the PM is diverting the attention of the nation. First, he said look at Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and West Bengal and today he said look at East India Company and Indian Mujahideen. Basically, after the INDIA alliance has come together the prime minister is having sleepless nights. Now, to hide his government’s failures in Manipur he is desperately trying to divert attention.

“Parliament is the temple of Indian democracy and we want the prime minister to come and that is our single most objective of the parties in the INDIA alliance,” Gogoi said when asked about the notice.

Responding to a question about the opposition parties’ decision, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi told reporters that the opposition should remember their failed attempt in 2018.

“I am not aware of their move but if they are doing so they should know that last time they brought a no-confidence motion, the BJP came back to power with a stronger majority of over 300 seats and the same will happen again and we will get more than 350 seats,” Joshi said.

The first no-confidence motion against the Modi government in the Lok Sabha was moved on July 20, 2018. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) scored a thumping win with 325 MPs voting against the motion and only 126 supporting it.

Although there was little doubt over the outcome of the 2018 no-trust vote on the floor of the Lower House because of the sheer number of MPs in the NDA’s kitty, the debate allowed the opposition to attack the government on a range of issues, including farm distress, slow economic growth and rising incidents of lynching.

A no-confidence motion can be moved by any member of the Lok Sabha. Rule 198 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Lok Sabha specifies the procedure for moving a no-confidence motion. The member has to give a written notice of the motion before 10 am which will be read out by the speaker in the House.

A minimum of 50 members have to support the motion and the speaker will accordingly announce the date for discussion for the motion. The allotted date has to be within 10 days from the day the motion is accepted. If not, the motion fails and the member who moved the motion has to be informed about it.

If the government is not able to prove its majority in the House, it has to resign.

The Lok Sabha currently has a strength of 543 seats of which five are vacant. The BJP-led NDA has over 330 members, the opposition alliance INDIA has over 140 and over 60 members belong to parties not aligned to any of the two groups.

The opposition parties are also likely to send a delegation of MPs to Manipur over the coming weekend, with one MP from each party joining it.