The best, the worst or the most partisan Lok Sabha speaker? Let the record speak

Om Birla was hailed as an outstanding MP and an excellent Lok Sabha speaker by prime minister Narendra Modi last week. The praise may have been necessitated because the PM was addressing people at Kota, the speaker’s constituency; it is however no secret that the speaker enjoys the confidence of the prime minister.

The leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi recalled that the speaker stands straight while greeting him but bows reverentially while greeting the PM. While the remark was made in a lighter vein, it is again no secret that the speaker allows the PM to take a lot more liberties than any other member of the House.

The speaker has never ruled against ruling party MPs chanting ‘Modi-Modi’ or Bharat mata Ki jai inside the House while never missing an opportunity to tell the opposition that the House is run by rules. It was also the speaker who advised the PM not to attend the Lok Sabha last month and alerted him about an alleged threat of attack on him in the House. The speaker has not yet explained on what basis he drew such an inference.

The speaker of the Lok Sabha does not unfortunately receive the scrutiny his office deserves. With the media paying fleeting attention to the chair, few remember or question his rulings, observations and conduct. Not many are interested in knowing what happened to the cash that the speaker had alleged was found on an opposition bench.

Under Om Birla’s watch the Lok Sabha has had the fewest sittings. His term as speaker has seen the suspension of the highest number of opposition MPs ever. It is also a record that no ruling party MP has been suspended by him, not even former BJP Member Ramesh Bidhuri who used communal slurs to abuse a fellow Muslim MP. It is also a matter of record that he has not admitted a single adjournment motion sought by the Opposition, disallowing discussions on surveillance by Pegasus spyware, the Adani manipulation of stocks and valuation as alleged by Hindenburg, farmers’ protest or the crisis in Manipur.   

It was again under Om Birla’s watch that a group of youngsters breached security, raised slogans, threw pamphlets from the visitors’ gallery and sprayed some kind of foam. Once again the speaker did not allow any discussion and suspended 99 opposition MPs who protested the denial of permission. The Rules Committee of the Lok Sabha with the speaker himself as the chairman failed to meet even once between 2019-22 and met just once between 2022-24.

Under his watch the government was given a free hand to introduce bills as and when it liked, sometimes on the last day of the session and without giving MPs any chance to study the legislations. As many as 14 Bills were passed in the winter session of 2023  within three days after the suspension of 146 MPs from Opposition. In the monsoon session the same year the Lok Sabha passed seven Bills within a week with an average of 21 minutes each devoted to deliberation. The controversial forest conservation amendment Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha within 33 minutes with only four MPs allowed to speak on it. The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill was debated for only 40 minutes.

Not only has the Speaker allowed the entire budget of the union government to be passed without discussion in the House, as many as 35 per cent of the Bills have been passed, alleged Pawan Khera of the Congress, with less than an hour of discussion. Less than 20 per cent of the Bills under Om Birla’s watch were referred to parliamentary committees for detailed scrutiny, claimed Khera.  

It was again under his watch that questions asked by MPs suspended from the House were deleted and the government was spared the trouble of answering them. There is no explicit rule of the Lok Sabha which allowed this but it was the Speaker’s discretion that prevailed, pointed out Maadhyam, a parliamentary watchdog.

Maadhyam also flagged multiple instances of censorship of the opposition by Sansad TV and drew attention to the number of Bills passed under Om Birla’s watch amidst protests when nothing could be heard. Pointing out that the Speaker is chairman of the Business Advisory Committee which sets the agenda of the House for each day, Maadhyam alleged that the government routinely deviates from the agenda, bringing Bills without notice to spring as a surprise to the MPs.

All said and done and even as the discussion on the resolution to remove the Speaker continues in the Lok Sabha as this report is being compiled, the record of Om Birla as Speaker is far from flattering.