Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla accepted the Opposition’s no confidence motion against the Government earlier today (July 26), saying that he will speak to leaders of all parties and announce when the discussion on the motion will be taken up.
The motion was brought to the House by Congress Party MP Gaurav Gogoi amidst the Opposition’s ongoing protests demanding a statement on the situation in Manipur from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary, Congress’s Lok Sabha leader, had on Tuesday (July 25) told the media that the Opposition will be introducing a no-confidence motion in the house.
“Today, it has been decided that we would not have any other alternative but to resort to a no-confidence motion because the government is not accepting the demand of the opposition to have an elaborate discussion with the Prime Minister on Manipur,” Chowdhary said, as per news agency ANI. “He should make a statement on the Manipur violence as he is our leader in the parliament,” he added.
What is a no confidence motion?
In a parliamentary democracy, a government can be in power only if it commands a majority in the directly elected House. Article 75(3) of our Constitution embodies this rule by specifying that the Council of Ministers are collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.
For testing this collective responsibility, the rules of Lok Sabha provide a particular mechanism – a motion of no-confidence. Any Lok Sabha MP, who can garner the support of 50 colleagues, can, at any point of time, introduce a motion of no-confidence against the Council of Ministers.
Thereafter, a discussion on the motion takes place. MPs who support the motion highlight the government’s shortcomings, and the Treasury Benches respond to the issues they raise. Finally, a vote takes place – in case the motion carries, the government is bound to vacate the office.
Should the government be worried?
No. With the majority mark at the Lok Sabha being 272, currently, the NDA government has 331 members, with the BJP alone boasting of 303 MPs. This means that even if all non-NDA parties come together (which is highly unlikely), the BJP still has the numbers to survive a no confidence motion.
The newly named INDIA alliance has 144 MPs while ‘neutral’ parties such as the BRS, YSRCP and the BJD have a combined strength of 70.
However, the no confidence motion has historically been used as a strategic tool to force a discussion on a certain topic or issue. The Opposition knows that it does not have the numbers but still has moved the motion to force the government to address their concerns about the situation in Manipur.
It was during the third Lok Sabha in 1963 that the first motion of no confidence was moved by Acharya J B Kripalani against the government headed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The debate on the motion lasted for 21 hours over four days, with 40 MPs participating.
In his reply, Nehru remarked, “A no-confidence motion aims at or should aim at removing the party in government and taking its place. It is clear in the present instance that there was no such expectation or hope. And so the debate, although it was interesting in many ways and, I think profitable too, was a little unreal. Personally, I have welcomed this motion and this debate. I have felt that it would be a good thing if we were to have periodical tests of this kind.”
Since then, there have been 26 more no-confidence motions moved in the parliament (not counting the latest one), with the last one being in 2018, moved by the TRS against the previous Narendra Modi government.
Source: Indian Express, 26/07/23
