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Bills passed before no-trust motion debate in past as well: House records
Lok Sabha records show that on at least three occasions, the debate didn’t start immediately, and a few bills and govt business were cleared in the interim
The opposition parties continued to maintain that the no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government must be taken up at the earliest, citing rules and precedents. But parliamentary records show that on at least three occasions, the debate started later and the government used the interim period to clear legislative business.
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Opposition leaders last week wrote to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, requesting the no-confidence debate should start at the earliest. They have also argued that the once a no-trust motion has been admitted in the House, no other substantive business can be taken up. Congress member Gaurav Gogoi’s notice on no-confidence was admitted on July 26.
Lok Sabha records, however, show that on at least three occasions—in 1965, 1992 and 2018—the debate didn’t start immediately, and a few bills and government business was cleared in the interim.
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On March 9, 1965, SN Dwivedy had moved a no-confidence against the government of Lal Bahadur Shastri, but the debate started six days later March 15. In the interim, the government introduced two bills and passed the railways budget, according to data available with the Lok Sabha secretariat. Another bill was taken up for approval but the discussions remained inconclusive.
Bhartiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh’s notice for a no-confidence motion against the Narasimha Rao government was accepted on July 8, 1992. It was the first of the three no-confidence motions faced by Prime Minister Narsimha Rao between 1991 and 1996.
The debate on the motion moved by Singh started on July 15 and the government brought five legislations during this period, Lok Sabha data showed. Only one bill, on delegation of power to the Jammu and Kashmir assembly, was passed.
Similarly, when the Telugu Desam Party quit the National Democratic Alliance and moved a no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government on July 18, 2018, the government introduced four bills in the House and cleared three pieces of legislation in the Lok Sabha. In the 48 hours between the admission of the notice and the start of debate, 7.34 hours were spent on government business, secretariat data revealed.
On Friday, addressing a press conference after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi secured a Supreme Court stay in his conviction in a criminal defamation lawsuit, the Lok Sabha floor leader of the Congress, Adhir Chowdhury, argued that no-confidence debate must take priority.
“According to the rules, when the no-confidence motion was brought in the House, no bill should be passed without a no-confidence motion,” he said. “This is according to the rules, according to the tradition. But still this government is passing bills one after the other indiscriminately in the House, without discussion.”
Since the no-confidence motion was filed and accepted, the government has passed 9 bills.
Meanwhile, as a logjam persists in the Rajya Sabha over the modalities of the discussion on the Manipur situation, government managers said they are waiting for a draft motion from the opposition for discussion under Rule 167 in the Upper House.
The opposition, which had rejected a plan to discuss Manipur on August 11, the last day of the monsoon session, claimed they have at least four drafts ready. Under Rule 167, a motion is taken up in the Upper House to pass a House resolution on a current issue.
The government managers, however, maintained that home minister Amit Shah, who will reply to the debate on Manipur, would be preoccupied with the Delhi bill to be passed in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, and the debate on the no-confidence motion that starts from August 8 in the Lower House.
