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Informist, Tuesday, Mar. 10, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Treasury and the Opposition benches exchanged barbs in the Lok Sabha as the Lower House of Parliament Tuesday debated a resolution to remove Om Birla from the speaker's post. The Opposition accused Birla of muffling its voice at the government's behest. The members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance, in turn, raked up the past and levelled allegations against Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi.

 

The resolution was moved in the House by Indian National Congress member Mohammad Jawed. While Gaurav Gogoi and Manish Tewari of the Congress, Mahua Moitra of the All India Trinamool Congress, Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), and Rajeev Rai of the Samajwadi Party were prominent speakers from the Opposition ranks, the government fielded Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, Food Processing Industries Minister Chirag Paswan, and Nishikant Dubey, among others. The House will vote on the resolution Wednesday.

 

Gogoi said Rijiju had acquired the reputation of being the parliamentary affairs minister who interrupts the Opposition the most. Rijiju targeted Rahul Gandhi, saying he had never seen a leader "who hugs the prime minister, then goes back to his seat and winks at fellow party MPs (members of Parliament)".

 

Lalan Singh, Janata Dal (United) member, said a no-confidence motion should be brought against the leader of the Opposition. "He (Gandhi) has little regard for the rules of the House, its processes or traditions," he said.

 

Moitra tore into the government for giving no space to the Opposition and for suspending its members. "Between 2004 and today, 245 suspension actions have been recorded in the Lok Sabha. Of these, 120 suspensions were done by Om Birlaji alone," she said.

 

Tewari pointed out that when the United Progressive Alliance was in government, when the leader of the Opposition gestured to speak, ministers would yield instantly. "Today, you switch off his (the leader of the Opposition's) mic if he is saying something that is not suitable to you," Tewari said.  End

 

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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