The debate on the No-Confidence Motion, which has been brought against the Narendra Modi government by the Congress began in Parliament on Tuesday. Earlier, the No-Confidence Motion moved by Congress MP from Assam Gaurav Gogoi set the stage for a showdown between the opposition and treasury benches amid concerted efforts by the I.N.D.I.A (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc to compel PM Modi to speak on the contentious Manipur issue in Parliament.
Gandhi is likely to speak on behalf of the Congress in the Lok Sabha on the No-Confidence Motion on August 10. However, it was expected that he will open the debate in the Lok Sabha.
Earlier on Monday, the Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification announcing that Gandhi's disqualification has been revoked and his membership is restored. The former Congress president reached Parliament hours after the restoration of his membership.
SC gives relief to Gandhi
Earlier on Friday, Gandhi got a huge relief from the Supreme Court after it stayed his conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his Modi surname remark and paved the way for his reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP. The stay which will also enable Gandhi, 53, to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was given on the grounds the trial court in Surat in Gujarat failed to explain why he deserved the maximum two-year punishment upon his conviction that led to his disqualification from the Lower House of Parliament. The top court also noted that the sentence would not have attracted disqualification had it been a day lesser.
No-Confidence Motion - a battle of perception
Although this No-Confidence Motion is bound to fail the numbers test, the opposition argued that they will win the battle of perception by cornering the government on the Manipur issue and forcing Modi to speak on the matter in Parliament. This is the second time that the Modi government is facing a No-Confidence Motion since 2014.
The first no-trust motion against the Modi government in Lok Sabha was moved on July 20, 2018. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) scored a thumping win with 325 MPs voting against the motion and only 126 supporting it.
Numbers game in Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha currently has a strength of 543 seats of which five are vacant. The BJP-led NDA has over 330 members, the opposition alliance has over 140 and nearly 60 members belong to parties not aligned to any of the two groups. While the Congress demanded that the debate on the motion of no-confidence should start from Thursday itself, Union ministers asserted that the government is ready for it as people have confidence in Prime Minister Modi.
Addressing a press conference, Congress MP Manish Tewari said this No-Confidence Motion has not been brought by the Congress alone but is the collective motion of all the constituent parties of I.N.D.I.A.
"For the last three months, the law and order system has broken down in Manipur, communities are divided, there is nothing in the name of the government there..all this compelled us to bring a No-Confidence Motion against the government," Tewari said.
The opposition parties have been demanding that the Prime Minister should give an elaborate statement in both Houses on why the situation reached this extent in Manipur, he said.
"We want the Prime Minister to give a detailed response to the No-Confidence Motion," he said.
Earlier, the K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which has nine MPs and is not a part of the INDIA bloc, had also submitted a notice to move a No-Confidence Motion against the government through its MP Nama Nageshwar Rao.
BJP's take
Asked about the opposition move, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said people have confidence in Prime Minister Modi and in the BJP.
"They had done that in the last term also and people had taught them a lesson and will do so again," he said.
Joshi's ministerial colleague Arjun Ram Meghwal said let the No-Confidence Motion come, the government is ready.
What is No-Confidence Motion
A No-Confidence Motion can be moved by any member of the Lok Sabha. Rule 198 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Lok Sabha specifies the procedure for moving a No-Confidence Motion. The member has to give a written notice of the motion before 10 am which will be read out by the Speaker in the House. A minimum of 50 members have to support the motion and the Speaker will accordingly announce the date for discussion for the motion. The allotted date has to be within 10 days from the day the motion is accepted. If not, the motion fails and the member who moved the motion has to be informed about it. If the government is not able to prove its majority in the House, it has to resign.
With the opposition and treasury bench members not relenting, a logjam has been prevailing in both Houses since the start of the Monsoon session on July 20. More than 160 people have lost their lives and several hundreds have been injured since ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3.
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