Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Lok Sabha on Thursday to reply to the no-confidence motion moved by the Opposition parties. The floor will also witness voting on the motion, which the government is sure of winning as it has a commendable majority in the House.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday confirmed Modi's presence on the floor. "The PM will be present in the House tomorrow to reply to the no-confidence motion," Singh added.
The Prime Minister is expected to make a statement on the ethnic strife in Manipur, a demand put forth by the Opposition since the monsoon session of the Parliament began last month.
Gaurav Gogoi MP, who opened the debate on Tuesday, had put forth three questions to Prime Minister Modi. They include 1) Why did he not visit Manipur to date? 2) Why did it take almost 80 days to finally speak on Manipur and when he did speak it was just for 30 seconds? 3) Why has the PM not sacked the Manipur CM so far? Gogoi asked.
The procedure
As per protocol, any Lok Sabha MP, who has the support of 50 colleagues, can introduce a motion of no-confidence against the Council of Ministers at any time.
After the motion is accepted, the Speaker fixes a time and date for the discussion. On the day of the debate, the MPs who support the motion will point out the government’s flaws and the Treasury Benches will respond to the issues they raise. Ultimately, voting takes place and if the motion is successful, the government is forced to vacate the office.
Will the Modi government lose?
The no-confidence motion is unlikely to win as the NDA has a clear majority in the House. Of the 331 MPs, the BJP has 303 MPs while the combined strength of the Opposition bloc INDIA is 144. The numbers of unaligned parties’ MPs are 70 in the Lower House.
As for the opposition, the floor test is an opportunity for them to demonstrate its newly firmed-up unity to take on the Modi-led BJP in the Lok Sabha elections next year.
The debate
The last two days of the Parliament had witnessed fierce arguments and counterarguments from both sides. Day two of the debate saw Rahul Gandhi attacking the government over the Manipur issue, alleging the politics of the BJP has "harmed Bharat Mata" in the state.
"In Manipur, they (BJP) have harmed Hindustan. Their politics has harmed Hindustan in Manipur," Gandhi alleged.
Home Minister Amit Shah, who responded to Rahul's remarks, had termed the violence in Manipur a cause of concern and said the incidents in the northeastern state have shamed us all. He also termed the May 4 video of the assault on women as a blot on society.
The minister, however, questioned the timing of the video, a day before the parliament session. “We arrested all the nine people the same day. Had we got the video before, the action would have been taken immediately.”
