How the BJP Government Fell 25 Years Ago: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies have announced in the NDA meeting that Narendra Modi will be the Prime Minister of the country for the third time. After Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister, the most important condition for him to remain in that post is that two NDA allies, i.e. Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar remain with the BJP. The most important condition put forward by Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP for this alliance is the post of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. That is, Chandrababu Naidu wants that in return for supporting the government, his party should not only get a place in the Union Cabinet, but the post of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha should also remain with his party.
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The history of Chandra Babu Naidu’s party and what the MP of Chandra Babu Naidu’s party did to BJP’s stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Lok Sabha Speaker, BJP people will hardly forget it. So what has TDP done in history that BJP is hesitating to give the post of Lok Sabha Speaker to Naidu’s party and what is that story, which if Telugu Desam Party repeats, then it will become a big challenge for Narendra Modi to remain on the post of Prime Minister.
What is the power of the Speaker in the Constitution?
The post of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is mentioned in Articles 93 and 178 of the Indian Constitution. The power of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is also mentioned in detail in these two articles. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha has the greatest power when the proceedings of the House are going on. That is, when the Parliament session is going on, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is the master of that session. The Speaker is also responsible for addressing the joint session of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
The Speaker also has the responsibility of giving recognition to the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The Speaker decides what is the agenda of the meeting. The Speaker has to decide on all issues like when the House will sit, when it will be adjourned, when voting will take place on which bill, who will vote and who will not. That is, if we look at it from the point of view of Parliament, the post of the Speaker becomes the most important. When the House is in session, theoretically the post of the Lok Sabha Speaker is not connected to any party but is completely impartial.
Why is Chandrababu Naidu adamant on the post of Speaker?
Then the question is why does TDP want the post of Speaker to remain with it in order to remain in NDA and make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister for the third consecutive time. The one-line answer to this is control over the government. How will this control be achieved, let us understand this as well. Now it is certain that the government is not of BJP but of NDA. That means Narendra Modi is now the Prime Minister of the alliance. In such a situation, if at any time the words of TDP or say Chandrababu Naidu are not accepted or the conditions with which TDP has supported BJP are ever broken and Chandrababu Naidu withdraws support from the government, then it will be the responsibility of the Speaker to ask Narendra Modi to prove majority.
During this time, if an MP from another party votes in favour or against, then the Speaker will have the right to disqualify that member. In the event of a no-confidence motion, a split in the parties is natural and the Speaker has the right to disqualify an MP under defection. If the speaker wants, he can also affect the strength of the house by suspending the members of Parliament from the house for some time. Therefore, during the no-confidence motion, the post of the speaker becomes the most important. And if such a situation arises in the future, the power should remain in the hands of Chandrababu Naidu, so he wants the post of speaker in his party.
How TDP played a trick with BJP 25 years ago?
There is an old story behind why BJP is reluctant to give the post of Speaker to Naidu. This story is about 25 years old. At that time, a no-confidence motion was brought against Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He had to prove his majority in the House. Voting on this motion was to be held on 17 April 1999. Then Pramod Mahajan, who is called Vajpayee’s Chanakya, had guessed that the majority was with him and Vajpayee would save his chair. Mayawati had separated from the government. This situation had come because of Jayalalitha’s withdrawal of support. Saifuddin Soz of National Conference had also turned against the Vajpayee government. Even then, the Vajpayee government had the majority, but the game changed when another Congress MP Girdhar Gamang got the right to vote in the Lok Sabha.
Girdhar Gamang was a Congress MP, but he had become the Chief Minister of Odisha on 17 February 1999 itself. Pramod Mahajan was under the misconception that Girdhar Gamang had resigned from the post of MP and he was only the Chief Minister. Congress remembered that their Chief Minister was also an MP. So, Girdhar Gamang, who was out of Parliament for a long time, suddenly reached Lok Sabha on 17th April. His presence created a stir in the ruling party. The matter reached the Lok Sabha Speaker. At that time, the Lok Sabha Speaker was GM Balayogi, MP from Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party.
GM Balayogi used his powers and extended a slip of paper to the then Lok Sabha Secretary General S Gopalan. Gopalan wrote something on it and sent it for typing. In that paper, GM Balayogi gave a ruling that Girdhar Gamang should vote on the basis of his discretion. Gamang listened to his party and voted against the Vajpayee government. This was the one vote due to which Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government fell. At that time, 269 votes were cast in favour of the government and a total of 270 votes were cast against the government.
How important the post of Lok Sabha Speaker is in democracy can be understood better from this example. Also, there is no great benefit in challenging the Speaker’s decision in the Supreme Court. While passing the bill, the speaker has the right to decide whether a bill is a money bill or not. In such a situation, by keeping the post of speaker with himself, Chandrababu Naidu can force BJP to accept all his conditions, which he had laid down while making Narendra Modi the Prime Minister.
