No Deputy Speaker in LS since 2019!

Venkatesh Kesari | NT

New Delhi: Even as the Rajya Sabha has been functioning with a Deputy Chairman appointed, the Lok Sabha has been working without a Deputy Speaker since 2019.The government, on the other hand, is working on a war footing to complete the construction of a new parliament building, making it clear that the election of the Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker is not its priority.

If the government is maintaining its silence over the non-election of the Deputy Speaker, the current Speaker Om Birla too is passive on this issue, thereby giving an impression of helplessness. The ruling BJP has a simple majority in the Lower House and thus can nominate its own member to the post or can offer this post to its allies, or even oblige the Opposition. But, surprisingly, there has been complete silence on this front.

The Congress party leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, has been pressing for holding the Deputy Speaker’s election but has not succeeded in influencing either the Speaker or the Leader of the House (PM Narendra Modi), even after two and a half years.

In his last letter to the Speaker (in June), Chowdhury requested that the necessary steps were taken for electing the Deputy Speaker. As the second highest-ranking legislative officer of the Lok Sabha, the Deputy Speaker is of help in ensuring that the varied functions of parliament are discharged effectively.

Significantly, this is the first time since 1952 that the current Lok Sabha does not have an elected Deputy Speaker. Generally, such posts are offered to opposition parties, in order to ensure smooth functioning of the House. This is in order to ensure balance, as the Speaker is always from the ruling party or coalition.

The BJP offered the post of RS Deputy Chairman to its ally, but in the LS it is reluctant to offer it to either NDA partners like JD (U) or friendly parties like the BJD, the YSR Congress, the TRS, or even the AIADMK.