A delegation led by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari submitted a letter to the Assembly Principal Secretary, stating, “This House regretfully disapproves of the conduct of Speaker Biman Banerjee and resolves that he be removed…”
This is the second time the BJP has brought a no-confidence motion against Speaker Banerjee. When contacted, Banerjee said, “They can bring no-confidence against the Speaker. But since I did not see the motion, and therefore, can’t speak on that.”
“The Speaker arbitrarily disallows all types of adjournment motions intending to discuss issues of public importance and problems concerning the people of the state. Also, he indirectly encourages the members of the ruling party to bring privilege motions against the Opposition members whenever his role is criticised. He, however, disallows genuine privilege motions tabled by the members of the Opposition eve as they are based on documentary evidence,” the letter read.
The Speaker unnecessarily delayed the disqualification of MLAs who joined the Trinamool Congress after being elected as BJP MLAs, the Nandigram MLA alleged in the letter.
He added, “He holds the proceedings and abuses the discretionary powers in such a manner to prevent the government’s incompetence and misdeeds from being exposed and thus neglecting the role of the Opposition in the House, usurps the privileges guaranteed by the Constitution to MLAs, misrepresents and misinterprets the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Legislative Assembly. In short, he fails to maintain an impartial conduct necessary to command the confidence of all sections of the House…”
The letter further stated, “He disregards the rights of the members of the Opposition and makes pronouncements, gives rulings calculated to undermine their rights and privileges and fails to apply an unbiased mind to the deliberations of the House. He deprives the Opposition members of an opportunity to effectively voice the people’s grievances, expunges portions of their speeches without valid reason and parliamentary decency…”
The letter also accused the Speaker of “unethically” including the name of a member who had defected to the Trinamool Congress as a list of speakers of the BJP “without the party’s consent” and failing to maintain the convention of the House and unnecessarily delaying action on petitions under rule 191(2) of the 10 Schedule of the Constitution read with rule 6(2) of the Members of West Bengal Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Grounds of Defection) Rules, 1986, against Horakali Pratihar, Suman Kanjilal, Tanmoy Ghosh and Mukul Roy who have since defected to the TMC.”
The party also alleged that Banerjee “arbitrarily disallows the Leader of the Opposition from meeting the press in his chamber while some ministers are allowed” to do so.
Speaking to media persons later, Adhikari, said while the Speaker allowed discussion of unlisted matters at the eleventh hour as requested by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to “criticise Prime Minister Narendra Modi and organisations like the NITI Aayog”, he is not allowing the Opposition to bring motions on issues like “atrocities on youths and women in the state”.
“This government is mired in the scams. Many TMC heavyweights and ministers are currently in jail. But, the Opposition is not allowed to bring up such issues on the floor of the House,” Adhikari claimed. He also accused the Speaker of violating the Constitution by “bypassing” the Governor’s role in the swearing-in of six TMC MLAs.
With PTI inputs