On 26 June, when Om Birla was elected the Speaker of the 18th Lok Sabha through a voice vote, this was the fourth time in the history of Indian democracy that there was a need for an election for this post. Otherwise, on most occasions, the ruling party and the opposition used to reach a consensus on this post. However, this time too, the ruling party took the initiative to reach a consensus.
But the opposition put a condition of giving the post of deputy speaker in exchange for Om Birla’s support for the speaker, due to which things got worse and the ruling party refused to accept the condition. In this way, Om Birla was elected for the second consecutive time in the Speaker’s election held after 48 years. Well, here is the story of the post of deputy speaker, which remained vacant in the 17th Lok Sabha. Another question is whether it is necessary under the Constitution that there should be a post of deputy speaker?
Here, let us first know the answer to the second question and then take a tour of its history. Actually, Article 95 (1) of the Constitution says that if the post of the Speaker is vacant, then his duties are discharged by the Deputy Speaker. And while doing so, a Deputy Speaker also has the same powers as are mentioned for a Speaker in the Constitution or the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha.
According to Article 93 of the Constitution, as soon as a new Lok Sabha is formed, its members shall, as soon as possible, elect two members of the House as Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively. However, the Constitution does not specify a specific time by which elections to these posts should be held. And perhaps this is the reason why governments take time in appointing these posts.
For example, the post of Deputy Speaker in Lok Sabha has been vacant since May 2019. The Modi 2.0 government did not appoint anyone to this post. This was the first time in the history of independent India that no one was appointed to this constitutional post. However, constitutional experts believe that under Article 93, two words – “must” and “as soon as possible” – have been clearly used. This indicates that these posts must be filled and as soon as possible.
When a new Lok Sabha is formed and the elected members meet for the first time, the first two days are spent in the oath and pledge of the MPs. After this, it is a tradition that the Speaker is elected on the third day. The election of the Deputy Speaker usually takes place in the second session. However, this is not necessary and it can be done in the first session as well. It has generally been seen that unless there are any unavoidable obstacles, the election of the Deputy Speaker is not delayed beyond the second session.
According to Rule 8 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, the election of the deputy speaker shall be held on a date fixed by the speaker. Once the date is fixed, the name of the candidate for the post of deputy speaker is proposed in the House. The members of the House then ratify the name. Once a Lok Sabha member is elected deputy speaker, he holds office until the lower house is dissolved.
According to Article 94, if the Speaker resigns from his post, he has to address the Deputy Speaker only. There was a debate on this in the Constituent Assembly in 1949. Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar said that the post of the Speaker is higher than the post of the Deputy Speaker, so he should not address the Deputy Speaker but should address the President.
But it was argued that since the Speaker and Deputy Speaker are elected by the members of the House, the accountability of this post is towards the members. Since the resignation cannot be addressed to every member of the House, it should be addressed only to the Speaker and Deputy Speaker because they represent the House. With this it was decided that if the Speaker resigns, it will be addressed to the Deputy Speaker and if the Deputy Speaker resigns, it will be addressed to the Speaker.
Anyway, if we go through the history, from the first general election in 1952 to 1969, when Congress was in power, the party kept both these posts with itself, but this trend changed in the year 1969. Congress gave this post to Gilbert G Swail, the leader of All Party Hill Leaders, who was the MP from Shillong at that time. Swail remained on this post till 1977. During this time, when the Janata Party government was formed, this post went to the Congress, which was playing the role of opposition at that time. Gode Murari then became the Deputy Speaker.
After this, sometimes this post went to DMK and sometimes to AIADMK. After 1990, it so happened that for the next 24 years this post remained with the opposition continuously. During the tenth Lok Sabha (1991-96), when PV Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister, BJP’s S. Mallikarjuna was appointed Deputy Speaker. Before that, during Chandrashekhar’s Prime Ministership (1990-91), Congress’s Shivraj Patil held this post.
When HD Devegowda was the Prime Minister in 1996-97, BJP’s Suraj Bhan was the Deputy Speaker. However, when the United Front government was formed at the Centre (1997-98) after the Devegowda government and I.K. Gujral became the Prime Minister, no one got this post at that time. After this, when the NDA government was formed under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Congress MP PM Sayeed became the Deputy Speaker. However, this government did not last long.
After this, when general elections were held again in 1999 and BJP formed the government, once again PM Sayeed became the deputy speaker. This time the government lasted for full five years. After 2004, UPA-1 and UPA-2 ruled the country. And during this period also this post remained with the opposition parties. In UPA-1, it was held by Charanjit Singh Atwal of Shiromani Akali Dal. In the second, Karia Munda of BJP was the deputy speaker.
Seeing this tradition continuing for 24 years, the parties felt that it has now become an undeclared rule. But when the Modi government came to power in 2014, it broke the tradition. It made M Thambi Durai, MP from one of its own ally parties AIADMK, the Deputy Speaker.
Till here it was fine. But next time in 2019 when Modi government came to power once again, this time something unexpected happened. This time no one was elected for the post of Deputy Speaker. If you go to the official website of Lok Sabha, you will find that the post of Deputy Speaker is vacant since May 2019.
Well, now that the opposition has become stronger in the results of the recent general elections, it has again set its eyes on the post of deputy speaker. The incident which has been briefly mentioned in the beginning of this story, its details as quoted by Aaj Tak are as follows. Actually, initially, an agreement was reached between the BJP-led NDA and the opposition Alliance India Block regarding the post of speaker. On behalf of the NDA, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju had talked to the opposition leaders.
On June 25, Rajnath Singh called the opposition party leaders to his office and requested them to sign the letter of support. The opposition put a condition of giving the post of deputy speaker in exchange for Om Birla’s support for the speaker, due to which the matter got worse and the ruling party refused to accept the condition. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said in a statement that Rajnath Singh spoke to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge three times in two days to build a consensus.
On the morning of 25 June, talks were held between Rajnath and Kharge. But due to his busy schedule, he entrusted the responsibility of talks to Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal. Later, Venugopal and DMK leader TR Balu reached Rajnath’s room in the House. Apart from Rajnath, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President JP Nadda also tried to convince the opposition, but the leaders of India Block made it clear that there has been a tradition of giving the post of Deputy Speaker to the opposition, so in return for support for the Lok Sabha Speaker, the ruling party should guarantee the post of Deputy Speaker to the opposition.
The ruling party refused to give any such guarantee. In such a situation, the talks between the two sides broke down at the last moment and after 48 years, the Speaker’s election had to be held again. The opposition hurriedly declared K. Suresh as its candidate and filed the nomination papers before 12 noon.
On June 26, when the election for the speaker was held through voice vote, the pro tem speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab declared Om Birla as the winner. Meanwhile, India Block said that they were aware of this result. But when they were not given the post of deputy speaker, they have registered their protest through these elections in principle.