New Delhi, June 10 (UNI) Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately initiate the process of appointing a deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha, a post that has remained vacant for two consecutive terms.
In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, Kharge highlighted that from the first to the sixteenth Lok Sabha, each House had a deputy speaker, and it has been a long-standing convention to appoint the deputy speaker from the members of the principal opposition party.
“However, for the first time in independent India’s history, this position has remained vacant for two consecutive Lok Sabha terms. No Deputy Speaker was elected during the seventeenth Lok Sabha, and this concerning precedent continues in the ongoing eighteenth Lok Sabha,” Kharge stated.
He further emphasised that the continued vacancy of this crucial constitutional post is not only against parliamentary conventions but also violates the provisions of the Constitution.
“This does not augur well for India’s democratic polity and undermines the esteemed traditions of our parliamentary democracy,” Kharge said in the letter.
He urged the Prime Minister to uphold the democratic ethos and conventions of the House by promptly initiating the process to elect a Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
