A Flurry of cross-accusations marked a 12-hour-long debate and an over two-hour-long reply by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to a no-confidence motion in Madhya Pradesh Assembly that was defeated by voice vote on Thursday afternoon.
Soon after, the Assembly adjourned sine die as the opposition Congress, which had moved the no-confidence motion, created a ruckus following the defeat of the motion. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh, in his detailed reply, asked the opposition members to introspect as to why their government fell and accused the Kamal Nath-led government of 15 months of rampant corruption.
Chouhan repeated his oft-made accusation that the Vallabh Bhavan (state secretariat) had turned into a den of touts during Nath’s rule. The CM said that during 165 days of Congress rule, 450 IAS and IPS transfers were done along with 15,000 other transfers. As a CM, Nath ignored his MLAs and even ministers that led several ministers to cross over to BJP.
The defeat of the motion was a foregone conclusion as the BJP officially has a majority of 127 MLAs in the 230-member house while three other MLAs (one each elected on SP and BSP tickets and one independent) joined BJP earlier this year. Congress has 96 members but Kasrawad MLA Sachin Birla has joined BJP though he officially continues as a Congress member in the house. Two more MLAs – K.P. Singh and Umang Singhar had excused themselves from attending the proceedings.
The defeat of the motion, though an obvious booster to the BJP government, is being also looked upon as an attempt by Congress to bring on record various failures of the government ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls. With only two more sessions of the current Assembly left, Congress wants to make the best of it.
However, the absence of former chief minister Kamal Nath from the house on both days came out as a sore point for Congress, with the home and parliamentary affairs minister Narottam Mishra raising the point during a debate and saying that this indicated no-confidence towards the leader of the opposition (Govind Singh). Singh himself had to excuse himself from the proceedings on Thursday as his mother fell ill and he left for his home town Bhind in the wee hours.
Business in most of the recent Assembly sessions was being curtailed to a few hours, leaving little chance for discussion on important issues. This was after a long gap that over 14 hours of discussions (including CM’s) reply was witnessed in the house, though there were repeated heated exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches.
This was the second no-confidence against Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government that has been in place since 2015, save for 15 months in 2018-20, when Congress was in government. The earlier no-confidence motion in December 2011, moved under the then leader of opposition Ajay Singh has become hugely controversial as deputy leader of opposition Choudhary Rakesh Singh had opposed the motion right in the house, leading to its defeat. Later Choudhary joined the BJP but returned to Congress in 2019.
The debate on the no-confidence motion, moved by the leader of the opposition Govind Singh, started just after noon on Wednesday and continued 45 minutes past midnight as Congress and BJP members engaged in a flurry of cross-accusations. Chief Minister Chouhan made his reply on Thursday.
The Congress had presented a 104-page ‘charge-sheet’ with 51 points to the Speaker along with the no-confidence motion. The main charges against the government included failure on the economic front, deteriorating law and order situation, corruption, atrocities against tribal and women, unemployment, farmers’ issues, discrimination and false cases against opposition MLAs and leaders and so on.
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12-hour long debate
Initiating the debate, Govind Singh said that the chief minister spoke from public platforms about ‘hanging up and burying’ corrupt persons, but he has not seen any such action on the ground. He also spoke about taking away the powers of panchayat representatives and the attempt of the government to trap Congress leaders in false criminal cases. Ex-finance minister Tarun Bhanot said that the government had taken Rs 4 lakh crores of loans and each citizen was carrying a Rs 55,000 loan. Former minister Jitu Patwari alleged that in the 20 years of government, Rs 12 billion was spent on advertisements, Rs 50 crore on events and Rs 250 crore on foreign trips of the chief minister. He also said that 268 cases of corruption were pending government approval and quoted National Crime Records Bureau figures to underline failed law and order.
In his reply, the home minister Mishra said that during the reign of Congress, dacoits, Maoists and Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) extremists were ruling the roost in the state, but the Chouhan-led government had managed to destroy all these networks. He also said that if Congress could present even a single case of a farmer who got Rs 2 lakh loan waived, he would give up his post. He also claimed that 21,000 acres of land worth Rs 15,000 crore has been freed from the clutches of the land mafia that thrived during Congress rule. Mishra also attacked Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi for trying to break the morale of the armed forces by using derogatory words.
Late on Wednesday night (around 12.45 am), the Congress members walked out protesting the remarks of BJP MLA Rameshwar Sharma questioning the religious beliefs of the Congress leaders.
Former ministers P C Sharma, Priyavrat Singh, Kamleshwar Patel, Sajjan Singh Verma and MLAs Laxman Singh and Arif Masood were prominent among those who participated in the debate for Congress. For the treasury benches, ministers Gopal Bhargava, Pradyumna Singh Tomar, Dr Prabhuram Choudhary, OPS Bhadoria and others spoke.
