Why Rahul Gandhi was incorrect to call Speaker Om Birla ‘Leader of the House’
In a fiery speech keeping his new avatar, Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition pulled no punches as he attacked the Modi government on several fronts. From Manipur to the Agniveer scheme, Gandhi attacked the government on various issues that led to rebuttals from several members of the government including the Prime Minister and Home Minister.
During the end of his speech, Rahul Gandhi said: “When I shook your hand, you stood straight and shook it.
When Modiji shook your hand, you bowed down and shook it. You are the Leader of the House; you shouldn't bow down before anyone. When the Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla said that it was part of “our culture” to bow down before elders, Gandhi said: "The Speaker is the highest post in Parliament."
From a strictly parliamentary perspective, that’s incorrect. The Leader of the House is usually the parliamentary chairperson of the party that holds a majority in the Lok Sabha and is responsible for government business in the house. In most cases, that’s the Prime Minister of India.
For example, Jawaharlal Nehru was the Leader of the House from 1957 till his demise in 1964. The only exception to this convention occurs when the Prime Minister of India is not a member of Lok Sabha. For example, after the 1991 election, PV Narasimha Rao was not the Leader of the House since he wasn’t a member of Lok Sabha and Education Minister Arjun Singh served as the Leader of the House till PV Narasimha Rao won in a by-election.When HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral were Prime Ministers, they were both members of Rajya Sabha, so the Leader of the House was Railways Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.When Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister, Pranab Mukherjee served as Leader of the House will he became President, and then that post was taken by Sushil Kumar Shinde. While the Lok Sabha Speaker is indeed an important post, it’s not the Leader of the House.
As the head of the Lok Sabha, the Speaker is the head and principal spokesperson of the house. The Speaker has to maintain order and decorum in the House and can adjourn the proceedings of the House or suspend it in case of an absence of decorum. The Speaker is considered the final interpreter of the provisions of the Constitution of India, the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of Lok Sabha.
The Speaker decides the questions of disqualification of a member, a ground of defection under the provisions of the Tenth Schedule, a power vested in the Speaker by the 52nd Amendment. However, in 1992, the SC ruled the decision of the Speaker is subject to judicial review.
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