New Delhi: The newly appointed Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has conveyed a clear message to Om Birla, who has been elected the speaker of the Lower House, describing the participation of all shades of political opinion in the House. Gandhi criticized the government for the way the House is being run now by sidelining the opposition, which is undemocratic. He assured his support to the leadership of Birla but, at the same time, noted that the Opposition should also have a chance to effectively articulate the views of the voters they were elected to represent.
Akhilesh Yadav, leader of the opposition in the UP assembly and Rahul Gandhi’s partner within the framework of the Samajwadi Party, also congratulated Birla, emphasizing that the latter’s post is connected with honorable traditions. Yadav dwelled on the hope that Birla, as the Speaker, would be neutral; in this sense, the members of each political party should be given a fair chance to speak without apprehension of getting suspended alongside other party members as it happened in the past.
Yadav’s past episodes, such as the mass sacking of Parliament MPs during the Winter session, Birla asked to be neutral to both the ruling and the opposition. On this, he wanted the Speaker to encourage the creation of positive discourse rather than suppressing negativity.
The eldest person to be elected as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha was Om Birla chosen through a voice vote after the ruling party failed to have the first-ever election of the Deputy Speaker in the house.
Congress MP K Suresh also threw his hat in the ring for the Speakership position after talks between the NDA and the INDIA bloc, made up of regional parties, failed. The elected representatives of the INDIA bloc, especially those who won 37 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, said that the voices of all the MPs, whether BJP or other parties, must be respected without discrimination.
NCP-SCP Member of Parliament Supriya Sule expressed similar apprehensions about the previous suspensions and asked Birla to focus on discussions and not to resort to suspensions in the future. Sule thanked Birla for his past service but forecasted better behavior from the said parliament member in the future.
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