PM Modi To Address Lok Sabha On No-Confidence Motion Today

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will mark his presence in the Lok Sabha on Thursday (August 10) to reply to the no-confidence motion moved by the Opposition against the NDA government. A vote will be held after Prime Minister’s reply to the debate - the outcome of which is already known with the numbers comfortably stacked in favour of the government.

 Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that the PM will be present in the House on Thursday to reply to the no-confidence motion.

Just before the adjournment of the House, the Union Defence Minister confirmed the same. The opposition moved a no-confidence motion against the Modi government on July 26 which was taken up by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. However, Modi's government won't lose the vote as his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies have a majority in the Lok Sabha.

What’s A No-Confidence Motion?

Any Lok Sabha MP, who has the support of 50 colleagues, can, at any point of time, introduce a motion of no-confidence against the Council of Ministers. Thereafter, a discussion on the motion takes place. MPs who support the motion highlight the government’s shortcomings, and the Treasury Benches respond to the issues they raise. Ultimately, voting takes place and if the motion is successful, the government is forced to vacate the office.

Notably, the NDA has a commendable majority with a number of 331 MPs out of which the BJP has 303 MPs while the combined strength of the Opposition bloc I.N.D.I.A is 144. The numbers of unaligned parties’ MPs are 70 in the Lower House. 

2nd No-Trust Vote Against Modi Govt

This is the second time Prime Minister Narendra Modi is facing a no-confidence motion. The first such motion against the Modi government was introduced in 2018 over granting a special category status to Andhra Pradesh which was later defeated. However, the discussion over the motion has been held on August 8 and August 9.

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on Tuesday initiated the debate on the motion which later turned into a heated argument between Opposition and the Centre. Gogoi, while speaking in House said that the Opposition was compelled to move the motion to break the 'maun vrat' of the PM and further asked three questions to the PM.

“Three questions to the PM--Why did he not go to Manipur yet?  Rahul Gandhi went there, MPs from different parties, part of I.N.D.I.A went there; Union Home Minister went there and MoS Home also went, but being the PM of the country, why Modi didn't Modi go to the state? The second question is- why it took 80 days for Modi ji to speak on Manipur? When he spoke, he spoke only for 30 seconds. After that too, there is no sympathetic word from Modi ji, nor has he appealed for peace there. Ministers are saying ‘We will speak on the issue’; they should do that, and no one has stopped them to speak, but ministers’ words do not hold as much significance as Modi ji’s does. If Mr Modi takes an initiative for peace, the step would be considered as a strong one which cannot be done by any minister,” Gogoi said.

“My third question is why the PM has not sacked Manipur CM yet. When you had to do politics in Gujarat, you changed the CM and that too two times. When there were elections in Uttarakhand you changed the CM several times.
 
When the elections were approaching in Tripura, you changed the CM there too. So, why are you blessing the Manipur CM who himself has confessed that there was an intelligence failure because of him,” Gogoi said on Tuesday.

Rahul Gandhi Attacks Govt Over Manipur Violence

 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday tore into the Narendra Modi government over its handling of the violence in Manipur, alleging the politics of the BJP has "harmed Bharat Mata" in the state, drawing a fiery response from Union ministers Amit Shah and Smriti Irani. 

As the Lok Sabha witnessed some fireworks during the debate on the no-confidence motion for the second day during which Gandhi also said that the members of the ruling party were "not protectors" of India, Union Home Minister Shah appealed with folded hands for peace in Manipur and urged the warring Kuki and Meitei communities to hold talks with the Centre to resolve the issue that has triggered the ethnic violence.

"In Manipur, they (BJP) have harmed Hindustan. Their politics has harmed Hindustan in Manipur," Gandhi alleged. The Lok Sabha adopted a resolution read out by Speaker Om Birla appealing for peace in Manipur and it was enthusiastically supported by the BJP-led NDA members in the presence of the opposition.

Shah said 152 people were killed, 14,898 people arrested and 1,106 FIRs registered since violence erupted on May 3. Hours after Gandhi's blistering attack on the prime minister for not visiting the strife-torn Manipur, a combative Shah, who hit back and spoke on a range of issues including on the several scams during the tenure of the Congress-led UPA, urged the opposition not to politicise the ethnic violence in Manipur that erupted on May 3.

"I agree with the opposition that there is a cycle of violence in Manipur ... Nobody can support such incidents. Whatever happened is shameful, but to politicise those events is even more shameful," Shah said in his nearly two-hour-long intervention.

Shah also questioned the intention of leaking the video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur just ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament which began on July 20. The video of the incident which happened on May 4 surfaced on July 19.

Smriti Irani Slams Rahul Gandhi For Indecent Behaviour

 

Speaking after Gandhi, Irani came down heavily on the former Congress chief for his remark, saying this is for the first time in a parliamentary democracy that someone has made such a statement. "I condemn the behaviour that was displayed. This is the first time in Parliament's history that someone talked about Bharat Mata like that, and Congress leaders were thumping desks," the BJP MP said, asserting that Manipur is an integral part of India.

She also accused Congress leaders of supporting the idea of dividing India. "Manipur is not divided, it is part of this country". As BJP members booed the Congress leader when he was leaving the House after his speech, he turned towards them and gave them a flying kiss.

Minister Irani took on the Wayanad MP and expressed outrage over his "indecent gesture". "The person who spoke before me... An indecent gesture was made... Only a misogynistic man can give a flying kiss to Parliament which seats female Members of Parliament... Such an indecent act has not been witnessed by the House ever before. The entire country has seen the culture of the (Gandhi) family," she said.

Later, many women MPs of the BJP sought "stringent action" against Gandhi in a complaint to Speaker Birla. Gandhi, in his first comments in the House after the restoration of his membership, alleged that the prime minister does not consider Manipur a part of India, triggering strong protests by the treasury benches. The prime minister was not in the House when Gandhi spoke.

Several Rajya Sabha members of the Congress were in the Rajya Sabha gallery of the Lok Sabha to hear him speak for the first time after his reinstatement as an MP. "You are sprinkling kerosene everywhere. You sprinkled kerosene in Manipur and then added fire to it. You are now trying the same thing in Haryana. You are attempting to burn the country everywhere," he said, referring to recent communal clashes in Gurugram and Nuh.

As the treasury benches protested and slammed Gandhi, Union minister Kiren Rijiju said the Congress leader should apologise for his remarks as it is the Congress that was responsible for insurgency and other problems in the northeast. In his speech, Gandhi also said the Bharat Jodo Yatra is not over and he undertook the cross-country march to understand what is that he loved and for what he had faced abuse for 10 years.