Opposition leaders meet Lok Sabha Speaker to air grievances

Opposition leaders meet Lok Sabha Speaker over grievances, including lack of opportunity for Leader of the Opposition to speak.

A delegation of Opposition leaders on Thursday (March 27, 2025) met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla over their grievances such as “not allowing” the Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, to speak in the House, “failure” to elect a Deputy Speaker since 2019, rejection of adjournment motions by the Chair, and reluctance to hold discussions on issues that do not entail voting.

Representatives of parties such as the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Shiv Sena (UBT), Indian Union Muslim League, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and Kerala Congress, met Mr. Birla and submitted a petition raising 12 points.

Congress leaders Gaurav Gogoi, K.C. Venugopal and K. Suresh; Dharmendra Yadav from the SP; Supriya Sule from the NCP(SP); Arvind Sawant from the Shiv Sena UBT and T.R. Baalu from the DMK attended the meeting.

The concerns expressed in the letter included “exclusion” of key Ministries from discussion on Demands for Grants and alleged switching off of microphones of Opposition MPs while raising Points of Order, “interference” of the Speaker’s Office in Parliamentary Standing Committee “compromising its autonomy” by “suggesting corrections” in committee reports and the “pattern” of Sansad TV not showing Opposition MPs.

The meeting comes a day after the Lok Sabha Speaker asked Mr. Gandhi to follow the rules of procedure to uphold the dignity of the House. The Opposition leader responded saying he was not being given a chance to speak in Parliament that was being run in a “non-democratic style”.

Mr. Gogoi told presspersons after the meeting that the BJP politicised an observation by the Speaker on Mr. Gandhi but without providing the specific context.

“He made a reference to Rule 349 and said members and the LoP must follow this. What specific incident he was referring to was not clear. There was politicisation and propaganda over the Speaker’s remarks. We apprised the Speaker of how his remarks had been politicised outside,” he said.