Lok Sabha should take no-confidence motion up Thursday: Congress

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday said the no-confidence motion against the government is a collective effort by all the constituents of the INDIA alliance and urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to take it up for discussion on Thursday itself.

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on Wednesday moved a no-confidence motion against the Modi government in the Lok Sabha on behalf of the opposition alliance, to force Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak on the contentious Manipur issue.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla admitted the motion after a headcount of over 50 MPs as required under the rules.

At a press conference here, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the opposition was compelled to bring the no-trust motion as the law-and-order situation in Manipur has broken down, communities have been divided and "there is nothing in the name of the government" there for the past 84 days.

He said although rule 198-A of the Rules of Procedures and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, suggests the Speaker has the discretion to allow discussion on a no-confidence motion within 10 days, the tradition is that once it is accepted, all other business is suspended and discussion is initiated immediately.

Considering the tradition and convention of the House, the Speaker should suspend all other business and allow a discussion on the motion Thursday itself, Tewari said.

He also said that once 100 or more MPs in Parliament rise in support of the motion, carrying out any other business will be inappropriate.

"We want the prime minister to give a detailed response to the no-confidence motion," the Congress spokesperson said.

He said, "We demand that all other work in the Lok Sabha is kept in abeyance and this is taken up on priority.

If any other business is taken up in the Lok Sabha during the pendency of the no-confidence motion, "it would be against the rules of propriety", Tewari said.

The opposition parties have been demanding that the prime minister make an elaborate statement in both Houses of Parliament as to why the situation reached this extent in Manipur, he said.

Asked whether the opposition had the numbers on its side to facilitate the passage of the motion, the Congress leader said, "It is not a matter of numbers but of morality." Tewari said when there will be division on the motion in the Lok Sabha, morality will be tested and it will be incumbent upon every MP to take a "personal position".

He asserted that the violence in Manipur in the last 83 days has put peace in the northeast at risk which can have long-term security implications for the nation.

The situation has raised several questions, which can be answered only by those at the apex level of the government, and it is none other than the prime minister, Tewari said.

Justifying the move to bring the no-confidence motion, the Congress spokesperson said the opposition has been demanding discussion on the Manipur issue under rule 184 and 267 in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively which the government refused.

He said when the prime minister has admitted outside parliament that the Manipur incidents were shameful and every person in the country was ashamed of it, "then why can he not speak in Parliament".

Replying to another question, Tewari said, the prime minister, being the head of the council of ministers and the first among equals, should answer the debate on the no-trust motion.

Traditionally, whenever such a motion has been brought in the Lok Sabha it is the prime minister who has replied to it, he said.

The Congress leader said the Centre has failed in its responsibility to restore normalcy in Manipur and as such the INDIA alliance brought the no-confidence motion to fix accountability in the matter.