Opposition Front INDIA Plans No Confidence Motion In Lok Sabha: Sources

New Delhi:

As the government plans a big legislative push in the Parliament to break through the logjam in both houses over discussion on Manipur, Opposition alliance INDIA is planning to move a no-confidence motion against the government in the Lok Sabha, sources said. A proposal to submit the notice was discussed at a meeting of the constituents of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) on Tuesday morning.

Sources said after weighing various options to force Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak in Parliament on the situation in strife-torn Manipur, it was decided that this would be an effective way to compel the government to initiate a discussion on the issue.

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

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 12 pm soon after Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar finally accepted notices by 50 MPs under Rule 267 to discuss the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur. Lok Sabha is also suspended till 2 pm.

Sources say a discussion on Manipur under Rule 267 is likely today in the upper house if the Opposition isn’t insistent on its demand that the PM make a comprehensive statement in both house before the discussion starts.

Jagdeep Dhankar hasn’t allowed any motion under Rule 267 during his term so far, and had last year said motions moved under the rule “have become a known mechanism of causing disruption”. The Opposition is demanding that MPs should be allowed to speak on the issue without any time-limit, for which all other legislative business should be suspended for the day — which Rule 267 of the house allows.

Crediting Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien for explaining that notices under Rule 176, which allows for a short-duration discussion on a particular issue not exceeding two-and-a-half hours, Mr Dhankar said the Trinamool MP rightly pointed out that all 176 notices can be overruled if Rule 267 notices are accepted.

Sources said the government is not expecting the opposition to back down from its demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak in parliament on the Manipur issue, and it will now insist on settling its legislative work. If a bill has to be passed amid uproar, it will be done, sources said.

Prime Minister Modi chaired a parliamentary meeting of the BJP this morning, where he lambasted the Opposition. “I’ve never seen such a directionless opposition,” he said, according to party sources. Just using “India” in a name doesn’t mean anything, the PM reportedly said, adding that East India Company and Indian Mujahideen too have India in their names. 

A group of opposition MPs have been sitting in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue at Parliament House since last night in protest against disruption of the monsoon session for a third day.

The Congress on Monday said parliament did not function for a third day because of the “continued refusal” of the government to accept INDIA’s demand for a “comprehensive statement” by PM Modi in both the houses on the Manipur crisis.