Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s repeatedly sarcastic barbs at Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury notwithstanding, the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha was suspended from the House for "unruly" conduct on Thursday.
Chowdhury was suspended following a resolution moved by BJP Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi who accused him of constantly causing disruptions and even demeaning the country and its image during House proceedings. Chowdhury would remain suspended for the rest of the Monsoon Session of Parliament which concludes on Friday and his suspension would be taken up by the Parliament’s Privileges Committee which would submit a report on the matter, it was learnt.
The penal action, it seems, was triggered by Chowdhury’s comments about the Prime Minister and his alleged silence on the Manipur issue earlier in the day, barely minutes after Modi walked into the floor of the Lok Sabha and took his seat for the first time in the current session ahead of his scheduled reply to the no-confidence motion moved by the Opposition.
Chowdhury referred to a fugitive economic offender of the country and likened Modi with Dhritarashtra, the blind king of Mahabharata, while making his speech in support of the no-trust motion, statements which irked treasury bench members to no end.
While the BJP brought a point of order and demanded Chowdhury’s apology for his statements, Speaker Om Birla expunged Chowdhury’s controversial remarks from official records of the Parliament in the wake of the massive protests from members of the ruling dispensation.
“It has become habitual. Despite getting repeated warnings, he hasn’t improved himself. He always makes baseless charges in his debates. He demeans the country and its image, and never apologizes,” Joshi said at the fag end of the day’s business in Parliament.
During his response to the no-trust motion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a swipe at Chowdhury and wondered whether he was sidelined in the debate on the no-confidence motion due to a phone call from Calcutta, an apparent reference to the current political proximity of Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee -- a known detractor of Chowdhury-- with the Congress high command in the wake of the newly-forged Opposition grand alliance.
Modi said the previous no-confidence motions in 1999, 2003 and 2018 were led by then Opposition leaders Sharad Pawar, Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge respectively. "But what happened this time? Adhirbabu did not get that opportunity. He was fielded as a speaker only after Amit Shah made a case for him," the Prime Minister said in reference to Shah’s dig at Chowdhury on Wednesday where the home minister offered him time from the BJP's quota to speak.
The debate on the no-confidence motion on Manipur was initiated on Tuesday by Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi. Adding insult to injury, Modi also recalled that Chowdhury was temporarily removed from his post of Bengal Pradesh Congress chief ahead of the 2019 general elections.
"The power of no-confidence motion has brought the Prime Minister in the Parliament today. None of us were thinking about this no-confidence motion at first. We were only demanding that PM Modi should come to the Parliament and speak on the Manipur issue. We were not demanding any BJP member to come to the Parliament, we were only demanding our PM to come. That is a legitimate demand since we are all members of this House. But since, for some reason, the PM chose to ignore that demand and stay silent, we were forced to bring this motion knowing well this wouldn’t dislodge the government since we don’t have the requisite numbers,” Chowdhury said in his speech earlier in the day.
“We don’t mind if Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister a hundred times,” Chowdhury said, “because the Opposition is focused more on the people's welfare.”
Chowdhury drew similarities between the PM, who has largely remained silent on Manipur, and Dhritarashtra. He referred to the episode from the epic where Draupadi, the female protagonist and common consort to the Pandava brothers, was disrobed in the presence of the blind king, and compared it with the horrific instances of torture on women in the north eastern state.
Taking exception to that remark, home minister Amit Shah interrupted Chowdhury’s speech and asserted that the Congress MP should retract statements which are “unbecoming of an Opposition leader” and “make a dent in the sanctity of the House with utterances maligning the Prime Minister”. “You should control the member because treasury bench MPs would not be able to listen to such remarks,” was Shah’s firm submission to Speaker Om Birla.
Prior to that Chowdhury took recourse to Shakespeare and quoted from the tragedy of Macbeth to refer to a “tyrant King” who brought misery on Scotland comparing that with present-day situation in Manipur. “It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash is added to her wounds… Each new morning new widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows strike the heaven in the face,” Chowdhury quoted.
