The opinion of the voters in Delhi is now crystal clear. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) - the newest political party on the block - has captured 95 percent of the seats in the Delhi Vidhan Sabha. In the newly elected legislature there will be only 3 non-AAP MLAs. All three belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which incidentally is the majority party in the Lok Sabha in Parliament. Upon the constitution and swearing in of all MLAs in the Vidhan Sabha, a question that has arisen for the second time in less than 12 months- "WHO WILL BE THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION (LoP)?"
This question arose last May after the Indian National Congress (INC) became single largest party in opposition in the Lok Sabha with only 44 seats. The fate of various selection committees that shortlist candidates for appointment of statutory authorities such as the Director, Central Bureau of Investigation, the Chairperson and Members of the National Human Rights Commission, the Chairperson and Members of the Lokpal and the members of the Central Information Commission hangs in limbo.
The Hon'ble Speaker eventually refused to accept the claim of the leader of the INC's representative group in the Lok Sabha to the LoP's post by, in my humble opinion, incorrectly invoking an obsolete ruling from the pre-independence era to hold that unless an opposition party had 10% of the total number of seats in the Lok Sabha it will not be entitled to claim the LoP's post. Even the Attorney General of India (AGI) is said to have supported this position completely ignoring the history of the debates in the same House on the issue of the LoP in 1977. Now history has come a full circle and it is the turn of the BJP to stake a claim to the LOP's post in the Delhi Vidhan Sabha with its miniscule representation in the House. Will it or will it not stake its claim to the LoP's post is the next big question.
What do the Rules of Procedure say about the LOP in the Delhi Vidhan Sabha?Strangely, the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Delhi Vidhan Sabha throw no light on the manner of appointment of the LoP. The web-edition of these Rules accessible on the House website at:
http://delhiassembly.nic.in/ProcRules.htm are silent on the criterion for recognition of the LoP. Nor is any ruling of the Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha on this issue displayed on this website. So the next big, billion rupee question is whether the BJP will let go of its fondness for the 10% quota rule while staking its claim for the LoP's post? Of course in the absence of clearcut Rules, it is the Speaker's call.
Should the Delhi Vidhan Sabha have an LoP?The issue must not be decided on the basis of the ideological leanings of any person including the Speaker. Instead the issue must be decided with reference to the law on the LoP which is crystal clear notwithstanding the Hon'ble Lok Sabha Speaker's decision. It is within her authority to make such a decision. The reasoning is based on the unequivocal decision of Parliament to reject any quota based criterion for recognising the LoP.
Irrespective of the colour or ideology professed by a party, an LoP in every legislature as a check against probable tyranny of the majority is a must. This is a time-honoured principle of the Westminster style of democracy that we have adopted and not a prognostication of what AAP might do with its sheer numbers. Presently the BJP is subject to the Vidhan Sabha Speaker's discretionary authority on the issue of the LoP. Hopefully AAP will look at this issue in a non-partisan manner and facilitate the recognition of the BJP's legislature party leader in the Vidhan Sabha as the LoP. "We cannot not have an LoP in either Parliament or the State Legislatures. It simply ain't cricket." says Mr Venkatesh Nayak of CHRI.
A certain johnny-come-lately commented on the lineage of voters in Delhi not too long ago. Delhi's voters have resoundingly rebuffed such compartmentalisation by showing they are neither "raamzaade" (children of the Hindu deity- Ram) nor the obnoxious pun played on that word (implying illegitimate children). Instead they are "AAMZAADE" - very ordinary and unpretentious voters who are proud of their lineage, and express their mind and make choices, fearlessly.
Nevertheless Mr Venkatesh observes that while a Hindi language daily published a truncated version of his co-authored article on this issue, none of the leading national English language dailies agreed to publish the longer English version of another article co-authored with a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court. While some said the article was too technical for their readers, others claimed shortage of space and another simply did not bother to respond to our request for publication. Thankfully, an e-platform run by a senior journalist based in Gujarat published a similar article of mine on this issue- accessible at:
http://counterview.org/2014/08/21/to-insist-10-seat-quota-is-essential-for-lops-chair-is-blatant-disregard-for-express-intention-of-parliament-in-1977/# Views expressed here are personal.
