 Hello and welcome to Musclocke. Three no-confidence motions were introduced in parliament on Monday against the NDA government. These motions were introduced by members of Telugu Desambati and Vyasaar Congress because of the central government's refusal to accept the demand for a special status for Andhra Pradesh. To discuss the implications of this no-confidence motion and what a no-confidence motion is, we have with us today Hamrat Singh, who is a political analyst and independent researcher and has also worked with members of parliament in the past. So welcome, Hamrat. First question that comes to mind to just tell our audience is that what is a no-confidence motion? See, no-confidence motion is a simple one-line motion. It is governed by Article 75 of the Constitution which says that the Council of Ministers are accountable to the member of parliament, largely Lok Sabha. If you talk about the rule, it is 198, a rule of the Lok Sabha. And it says that a member of parliament can show no confidence to the ministry, to the Council of Ministers. And this can be taken up in the parliament in the Lok Sabha if 50 members give an assent to this. So a speaker first asks if the 50 members are ready to take this no-confidence motion. And this with this no-confidence motion can be adopted. Once it is adopted, there is a discussion. A speaker has the full rights to allot the time for the discussion. It can be few hours to a few days. It can range as speakers think appropriate for it. And then there is a vote. So if in the vote, the government is not able to prove its majority, the council has to dissolve. They have to resign themselves. So that's the overall idea of no-confidence motion. Like I said, a majority would be needed. If it goes to vote, then the majority would be needed for the government to actually be dissolved. And at the moment, the BJP does have a majority, by one seat, but it does have a majority. But we are still seeing that the BJP is very unwilling to admit this motion. And why do you think this has happened? So 2014, NDA was around 335. Now they have reduced to 314 after the poor performance in Bipoles and after TDP moving away from them. But still, they are quite intact. And the other parties, Shiv Sena, Srimani Akali, the other parties are quite intact. And I think they have the clear majority. And it is not the numbers which they fear, but I think the debate which they fear. Because if there's no-confidence motion comes up, it is not some stated topic only which will be discussed. Any topic can be discussed. Any MP can pick up any topic and discuss that. And especially at a time when after four years, this has happened for the first time with this government, that no-confidence motion is coming. And we have things happened in past like PNB scam, the SSE scam is going on, Kaveri issue is there, then special status demand is there, Delhi ceiling is there. So there are a whole lot of issues there. And I think somewhat government is frightened to discuss these issues because it's all about the no-confidence motion. The debate is all about what government has done and what it has not done. So it's a pure mechanism to create accountability even if the votes are absolutely in the part of side of government. So it's a pure mechanism to create accountability. And I think they are running away from the debate. That's the whole idea. And going to the reason why this no-confidence motion has been introduced, TDP and VISA Congress members of parliament have introduced it. And the main demand has been that Andhra Pradesh has not been granted a special status. So what other reasons are there? Why is this discontent there in TDP now? See, TDP was always one of the strongest allies of BJP, even as per numbers. They had 16 MPs in Lok Sabha and six in Rajasabha. So they were the biggest ally of NDA. So it's been four years they have been demanding for the special status. And the next year is also the election season in Andhra Pradesh. So what I understand is that TDP now wants to ensure that they get the special status. And I was listening to one of the TDP MP and he was arguing that we were with the government trying to request tempers with them. That did not happen. So then they started protesting. Then they started moving out of the NDA. And finally they have gone to no-confidence motion. Why is TDP demanding all these? So TDP has basically four demands. One is obviously special status. Other is, so the Amravati capital which will be constructed. The expense of land acquisition and the construction which will take place in the capital is around 30,000 crores. The government till now, the central government till now has only given 2,500 crores. And the complete burden to build that capital is on Andhra Pradesh. Unlike Punjab and Haryana which has a single capital of Chandigarh, Andhra has decided to take its capital as Amravati and not Hyderabad. So they will have to build everything from High Court to Sachivalaya to everything. So a lot of money will be required to do that. They also want some special railway zones constructed for them. They also want this, there is some river projects, the dam projects, they want center to invest more on them. Whereas center has invested quite less, I mean one sixth of what they are demanding up till now. So yeah, these are the reasons other than special status for why TDP is agitating. Why TDP has finally decided to come up with the no-confidence motion. And obviously next year is the elections, both Andhra and center election. You pointed out earlier that NDA's seat share has fallen and we've also seen that BGP's seat share has also fallen from I think 282 seats. 2274. Yeah, 2274 seats now. So we're seeing BGP's seat share is falling. So does this no-confidence motion also indicate what could be the BGP's future in the next elections? Are they likely to then win a majority next in 2009? See, will they able to win a majority or not as something which has to be predicted? I won't like to go on that. But yes, definitely the allies of BGP are not all that happy. We have seen in past how Shiromani Akalidal or Shiv Sena has somewhere or the other given some comments which are not very much in favor of BGP. So has recently JDU done, very recently JDU has done after the Bipoles of Pihar. And we have seen what TDP is doing right now. So yes, the allies of BGP are not very much happy with them. And this can be a problem for them with what we have seen in UP, Sapa and Baspa coming together. I think it will be bit difficult for them to get that majority if they come together even in 2019. And with that, they should ensure that their allies stay together and should coordinate with them. But I don't think they're really doing that. I don't know why they are not interested, but 2019 is a time when they will need their ally more than 2014. And if they are not able to do that, then the consequences can be bad for them. Let's move on to what the current situation in Lok Sabha tells us about how BGP is dealing with the proper parliamentary procedures. The speaker has a responsibility for ensuring debate and admitting motions which members of parliament are introducing. But we're saying that's not happening properly. So what do you think about that? See, it is the first or utmost duty of the government to ensure that the parliament functions properly. Similarly, it is the utmost duty of the speaker to ensure that the parliament functions properly. And interestingly, the speaker has all rights under Rule 378 of the Lok Sabha to ensure that the parliament functions properly. The House has to be in order. That is what the BJP or the NDA is arguing, that to ensure a debate of no confidence, we need the House in order. But we have seen how the budget was passed without the House being in order in less than 40 minutes. And a vote can happen on no confidence without the House being in order. And that is one thing. Apart from that, it is the sole responsibility of speaker to ensure that the House is in order. And what is unfortunate is that neither speaker nor the parliamentary minister or the other members from BJP has approached opposition parties. See, it's a matter of dialogue. The parliament is all about dialogue and debate and discussions. And it is important that the party, the BJP, should approach the oppositions if they are not coming on board to ensure that discussions take place in parliament. A lot of money is spent to make the parliament function every day. And a lot of eyes are on the parliament, eyes of citizens are on the parliament to see how a system or country parliament is functioning. And this really disheartens many of the people around who are watching parliament curiously to understand how the nation is going ahead and other things, yeah. So we know that the party is introducing the no confidence motion. They clearly know that they don't have a majority. And it's very unlikely that they will win this motion. BJP is quite likely to win it. Then why do you think this motion is being introduced? See, the whole idea of introducing no confidence motion is not only to ensure that government falls. The another idea of introducing no confidence motion is also to pressurize government so that they debate, so that they take up important issues. And looking at the present situation, when opposition is not that much united, we can see them coming together on this issue. Almost eight parties have shown their support to the TDP's no confidence motion, including Congress, Trinamul Congress and other parties. And this actually will help the opposition to unite and maybe look forward for 2019 or also show the government that we want to have a debate. We want to have a discussion. But it's you who are not allowing us to do it, because till now the perception is that it's opposition who are not allowing it to happen. The another point to add is that AIDMK and the other party, which is protesting, both of them can pick up the same issue of Kaveri Management Board and of giving special rights to Telangana to actually give reservation to certain communities. Both these parties can actually take up the no confidence motion to discuss these issues. But I completely can't understand why they are not doing this, why they are just protesting and coming to well. I think there is a, I mean, this is a speculation. I cannot guarantee if this is the situation, but there is some understanding with the government that let it happen, let the house not function. It's already been 10 days, the house has function for less than five hours, both Lok Sabha and Raj Sabha, and let it continue so that the important issues are not debated and discussed. Yeah, and we have only a few days left. Yeah, only a few days left, yeah. So what do you think is the way forward now? See, ethically and even as for the responsibility, it's the government who should approach the opposition party and ensure that these discussions and debates take place. AIDMK is demanding certain things. So let there be a discussion, let their demands also be heard, and let the parliament, which is a forum of discussion, ensures that those parliamentary procedures are followed. But just running away from things is not a way forward. And I hope we will ensure that people's money are not wasted, the way they are getting wasted with parliament not functioning. And there are still many days left. I hope things will turn better. Government will approach opposition and will move forward in a more constructive way. Thank you, Hamraaz, for joining us in this discussion. We will be following this issue closely and we'll be coming back to you to talk about this again. Thank you for watching News Clear.