×
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Depleted numbers render Cong, SP voiceless

Last Updated 28 July 2014, 18:32 IST

The scanty numbers of the Congress and Samajwadi Party has had a direct impact on the time they get to raise issues in the Lok Sabha.

Leaders of the two parties —who are not accustomed to the petty struggle of fighting for time — are seen arguing with the chair just to get a word in edgeways. 

SP parliamentarian Dharmendra Yadav needed to interject so that his party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav would be heard when he rose to participate in a discussion in the House. “Netaji (Mulayam) is speaking; this is incorrect,” Dharmendra said, chiding the interrupting Congress members. Dharmendra, a Lok Sabha member from Budaun, is Mulayam’s nephew.

In the previous Lok Sabha, the SP chief had the numbers to get a fair enough chance to speak in Parliament. With 21 MPs, the party had often stalled proceedings over issues it found prickly.After this year’s elections, however, the SP was reduced to just four members – all from Mulayam’s family. Recently, Dharmendra Yadav issued a virtual threat to members who dared to interrupt the SP chief’s speech.

“You have disturbed Netaji (Mulayam) a lot, now let any member dare to speak. Is this the way? Netaji has been allotted time to speak,” Dharmendra said, gesturing at Congress MPs.

 The Congress, too, seems to be going unheard. At a recent strategy meeting of the Congress in Parliament, several members complained that they were not getting adequate time to raise issues in the House.

 With the main opposition party unlikely to get the post of Leader of the Opposition, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge will have to make more efforts to make himself heard in the lower house. According to convention, the Leader of the Opposition gets precedence over other members if he expresses his desire to speak.

In the House, a political party is allotted time to speak in proportion to its strength. “We have the entire field open for us. Such scenes will continue for the next five years,” a young Congress member said when asked about the party’s frequent protests in the Lok Sabha.

Congress members, including Kharge, have been pulled up by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on several occasions in the Lok Sabha, asking them to follow the rules and procedures of speaking in the House.

ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 28 July 2014, 18:32 IST)

Follow us on

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT