Opposition vs Speaker faceoff continues: ‘Silence on letter, who switched mic off’

Parliament will have a holiday Monday on the occasion of Eid and resume its functioning on Tuesday. The Budget session is scheduled to end April 4.

Birla said he would respond to the issues outside the Lok Sabha since that’s where they were raised. While Congress MPs including party general secretary K C Venugopal, Deputy Leader Gaurav Gogoi and whip Manickam Tagore asked for a response, the Speaker went ahead with business.

He called Congress leader Manish Tewari to speak on his objections to the introduction of The Indian Ports Bill, 2025, moved by Ports Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. As Tewari rose to speak, Speaker Birla said: “Mic chalu hogaya na? Inko batao na mic kaise chalu hota hein” (The mic is functioning, right? Please tell them (pointing to the Congress leaders) how the mic is switched on).

A visibly surprised Tewari replied: Aap bataiyee na, Adhyakshji, mic kaise chalu hota hai? (Mr Speaker, kindly tell us how the microphone is switched on.)

On this, Congress MPs stood and protested against the Speaker. Although Birla asked BJP’s Nishikant Dubey to sit down when he raised objections to the Congress MP’s reaction, Birla said: “Mic jabhi chalu hoga jab mananiya adhyaksh uski anumati dega. Bina Adhyaksh ke mic chalu nahin ho sakta… (The mic will be switched on when the Speaker allows it. Without the Speaker’s permission, it does not get switched on).

Incidentally, on July 1 last year, in an observation on controlling the microphone systems, Birla had said: “The mic is controlled as per the ruling of the Chair. The control of the mic is never with the person sitting  the Chair.”

When Tewari and his party colleague MP Benny Behanan refused to speak in the pandemonium over their objections to the introduction of the Bill, Birla called CPI-M’s K Radhakrishnan and TMC’s Sougata Ray. While Radhakrishnan said the proposed law encroaches upon the power of state governments and undermines the federal structure of the Constitution as it seeks to centralise control over ports, Ray alleged that the proposed law does not appear to be adequate to control private ports.

The Congress members continued their protest, but MPs from NCP, DMK, SP or TMC did not join them. Incidentally, the INDIA bloc delegation, which submitted the letter Thursday, included the Congress, TMC, Samajwadi Party, Kerala Congress, RJD, IUML, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, Shiv Sena (UBT) and MDMK. The letter given to Birla also carried the signature of the RSP.

“What happened was completely avoidable and totally unnecessary. The House belongs to everybody and not only to the Treasury benches,” Tewari told The Indian Express outside the House.

Opposition leaders pointed out that Article 105, that defines the powers and privileges of members of Parliament and committees, protects freedom of speech in Parliament for MPs. “Rules and procedures and the conduct of business in the LS cannot circumscribe the untrammelled liberty of MPs to speak their mind irrespective of the fact that it may not be the entire truth or completely based on empirical evidence. What the Speaker is doing is trying to reinterpret Article 105,” said a senior Opposition MP.

Gogoi pointed out that Opposition MPs wanted a reply from the Speaker. “Opposition parties stood up to seek the reply of the Honourable Speaker to the issues we raised. Unfortunately, we did not get the chance to register our concern. We raised the fact that the last time the Leader of Opposition spoke was during the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address. Since then he has not been allowed to speak,” Gogoi told The Indian Express. “If the government does not change its attitude inside Parliament, then the Prime Minister should stop giving sermons on democracy and dissent in public.”

While Gandhi and the Congress have routinely alleged that their microphones are turned off when they rise to speak, the letter given by the united Opposition echoes this allegation. “Whenever Opposition MPs raise a point of order, their microphones are switched off preventing them from expressing their concerns. In contrast whenever, ministers or ruling party MPs wish to speak, they are immediately allowed. This one-sided control undermines the spirit of the democratic debate,” the letter said.

“The operative part of Article 105 says that you have to follow rules and procedures. Rule 389 of the Rules of Procedures and Conduct of Business says the powers to run the house and regulate article 105 is vested with the Speaker. No member can raise a question or debate anything about the ruling of the Speaker,” Dubey told The Indian Express.

The BJP MP said that during the UPA’s term, the BJP, as the main Opposition party, had gone to then Speaker Meira Kumar complaining that its leader (then LoP) Sushma Swaraj’s microphone was switched off. “But we never made this an issue of debate like the Congress has done now,” Dubey said.