Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday sharply criticised Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, accusing him of “perfecting the art” of turning off microphones of Opposition MPs.
Opening the debate for her party on a motion of no confidence against the Speaker, Moitra described it as “divine karma” that she was speaking in the debate after being “illegally witch-hunted by this misogynistic government”.
Referring to her earlier expulsion from the Lok Sabha, Moitra said it was “richly ironical” that she was now initiating the debate for her party against the very Speaker under whose tenure she had been expelled. And she ended her speech, quoting former UK parliamentarian Oliver Cromwell: “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately… Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”
“I was a lady MP who was illegally witch-hunted by this misogynistic government, wrongly expelled by an ethics committee that had no power to expel, after a motion in which I was not allowed to speak,” she said. “The Speaker, in violation of every principle of natural justice, did not allow me to defend myself. Today, I am opening the debate for my party in a motion of no confidence against that very Speaker. You can’t run away from karma.”
Supporting the motion, Moitra alleged while ruling party members were “allowed to speak endlessly”, Opposition members were frequently “cut short”. “In the last Lok Sabha, under his guardianship, the art of switching off the mic of Opposition members mid-sentence was perfected. Sansad TV, paid for by taxpayers, blacks us out. When we stand up, we are told it is a technical glitch,” she said. Calling the situation “sad for Indian democracy”, Moitra said, adding, “The government has made a circus of parliamentary democracy and if the Speaker is going to concede to being a complicit ring master, it is very sad for Indian democracy”.
Moitra also criticised Birla for not allowing discussion on the Manipur violence until a no-confidence motion against the government was brought and also referred to BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri’s remarks against BSP MP Danish Ali in the House, alleging that no action was taken against him. “You failed not only Danish bhai but 200 million Muslims of this country,” she said.
She also referred to the Speaker stating in the House that he had “concrete information” that Opposition women members might carry out “some unexpected act” towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as a result of which he had requested him not to come to the House to reply to the discussion on the motion of thanks on the President’s address. “The Prime Minister is too scared to come to this House and the Speaker is covering up for him in this ridiculous manner, denigrating women without any substance,” Moitra said.